Verbuar
by StillWatersAreDeep
Summary: "The one with the power to assure our Lord's reign approaches ... born to those who have thrice stood with him, born as the seventh month dies ... and our Lord will make him his equal," What if this prophesy made Lord Slytherin, adored ruler of Magical Britain, want to marry Harry Potter? A TMR/HP Tragedy/Romance, AU, Dark. Please mind the warnings!
1. Prologue

**Disclaimer****(for the whole story): **This story is based on characters and situations created and owned by JK Rowling, various publishers including but not limited to Bloomsbury Books, Scholastic Books and Raincoast Books, and Warner Bros., Inc. No money is being made and no copyright or trademark infringement is intended.

**Summary:** "The one with the power to assure our Lord's reign approaches ... born to those who have thrice stood with him, born as the seventh month dies ... and our Lord will make him his equal," What if this prophesy made Lord Slytherin, adored ruler of Magical Britain, want to marry Harry Potter? A TMR/HP Tragedy AU, Dark. Please mind the warnings!

**Pairings: **Tom/Harry, other side pairings like Draco/Astoria, Lucius/Narcissa, James/Lily, Sirius/Remus

**Rating:** NC-17

**Warnings:** This is placed in the category Tragedy for a reason! It includes dark themes, AU, some OOC because of the AU, self-harm, m-preg, arrange marriage and **temporary** Character Deathafter suicide.

The reason for the last warning is that the first plot arc (tragedy) will **not** have a HEA(Happily-ever-after), though the second arc (romance) **will have** a HEA-ending as a 'What if'-sequel. So, if you can live with a temporary character death before the HEA this is your story.

There's also villain Dumbledore and good Tom, but read for yourself.

Also English isn't my native language.

**Guide:** "Speech", _Thoughts, __**~letters and other written things**_, "_Parseltongue__" _

**Beta: **cuter-than-a-guinea-pig. All remaining errors are my own.

**AN: **A warm welcome to my new readers. Hello again to my old readers. This story (especially the last third) will be much, much darker than my previous ones. Still, I hope that you'll enjoy reading this story.

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**-~-~- Verbuar* -~-~-**

**-~-~-by Still waters are deep-~-~-**

**-~-~- Prologue -~-~-**

My name is Harry James Riddle, nee Potter, former consort of Lord Slytherin and this is the story of my short life.

One could say that my life already headed downhill―or as the Seers like Sybill Trelawney loved to call it, was fated to be doomed―six months before I was born.

**-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-Verbuar―Blinded-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-**

It was a snowy night in the beginning of February of nineteen-eighty when a chain of unfortunate events built the basis for my condemned life. It all began as Severus Snape, who at the young age of twenty was already Lord Slytherin's most trusted and talented Potions master and would become one of my future godfathers, entered the Hog's Head to meet with Mundungus Fletcher.

While Severus had no love left for Fletcher, he was in a desperate need of chimaera eggshells for his latest potion and the dubious black market dealer had promised to deliver the as Non-Tradeable Substance classified Potions ingredient today at seven.

As Severus was ascending the stairs to room number three where he would meet with Fletcher, he noticed that the door to room one was halfway opened. And just as he was about to walk pass the door, he heard a husky trance-like voice begin to speak. Intrigued, he stopped to listen to the voice. And what he heard was beyond anything he had hoped to gain from meeting Mundungus Fletcher at the Hog's Head.

"The one with the power to assure our Lord's reign approaches ... born to those who have thrice stood with him, born as the seventh month dies ... and our Lord will make him his equal," Sybill Trelawney spoke in her Seer-trance, her voice being carried from Room One out into the hallway where Severus was standing.

Unfortunately, this was all Severus heard of the prophesy made by the young Trelawney before the soft and husky voice of the great-great-granddaughter of the famous Seer Cassandra Trelawney was drowned out by the loud yell of Aberforth Dumbledore―the owner of the Hog's Head.

"How many more times do I have to tell you that you're band from this establishment," Aberforth angrily screamed up the stairs as he saw Mundungus Fletcher already halfway up the landing.

"Come on you rat, out with you!" Aberforth said, as he grabbed Fletcher by his dirty robes and dragged him towards the door.

By the time the noise level subdued, Trelawney had already come out of her trance and stopped speaking.

_Why did the dunderhead asked me to meet him in the Hog's head when he's banned from it?_ Severus asked himself, annoyed with the black market dealer. Contemplating whether he should get a hold of Fletcher or the Seer first, he decided that whoever was in room one would still be there in five minutes, while Fletcher most likely would run off in some moments. So, he turned on his heals to go after Aberforth, who was currently busy shoving Mundungus out of the pub's door, hoping to catch Fletcher before he could Apparate away with his chimaera eggshells.

**-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-Verbuar―Blinded-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-**

With a purposeful stride and chimaera eggshells in his inner robes pocket, Severus re-entered the pub and walked to the room where he had heard the prophesy being spoken from. When he discovered that the only occupant of the room was a young woman with wild brown hair, sitting in an uncomfortable chair with her back facing the entrance, he walked straight up to her.

"Tell me, woman, what else did you say after 'our Lord will make him his equal'!" the dark-haired Potions master demanded in a no nonsense voice as soon as he was standing in front of the chair the young brunette was occupying.

"Me?" Trelawney squished out, intimidated by Severus' threatening stance in front of her.

"Yes, you!" Snape barked out, needing to know what else the prophesy said.

"I didn't say anything after I entered this room," the frightened woman finally stammered out after some moments, wondering if she may have talked while she had dozed off for a minute.

As the Potions master's face obviously became even angrier at her words, she hastily continued speaking. "I was just sitting here by myself, waiting for Headmaster Dumbledore's arrival. He is in the dire need of a new Divinations teacher and I've applied for this important position," Trelawney explained, hoping that the mentioning of the well respected headmaster of Hogwarts would be enough to save her from the Potions master's fury.

But in the end, it wasn't Dumbledore's name but his appearance in the room which saved her from any further harm Severus might have inflicted on her to hear the rest of the prophesy.

"Ah, Severus, my boy, what a nice surprise. What brings you here?" Albus Dumbledore asked his former student as joyful as ever.

"I was just asking this woman to tell me the second half of the prophesy she made minutes ago," he informed the headmaster. _Maybe she will tell the whole prophesy to her future employer, especially since she said she is applying for the Divinations post,_ Severus thought as he―contrary to his better judgement―told Dumbledore of the existence of the prophesy.

"And here I thought you wanted to offer to take over teaching Potions from Horace," Dumbledore said, saddened. He would have loved to have Severus as the new Potions master of Hogwarts, but it seemed like he would need to find someone else for the post before the next school year started.

Remembering why the young Potions master was here, he asked, "If my memory serves me correctly, you never took Divinations at Hogwarts, did you?"

"No," Severus answered, wondering where this talk was headed as he was only interested in the rest of the prophesy.

"Then, my boy, you most likely don't know that a Seer is in a trance when they make their prophesies and can't remember their words when they come out of the trance. So, I fear, Severus, that we will never know the rest," Albus explained to his former student.

_Wonderful,_ Severus thought, sarcastically. _Why couldn't the idiot Fletcher decide to arrive five minutes later? _Out loud he said, "Then I've no further business here and will take my leave so that you can begin with your job interview." And with that, he left the room in a whirlwind of his black robes.

Once outside the Hog's Head Snape Apparated back towards his Lord's Manor in England. Lord Slytherin surely will be very interested to hear about the prophesy, even if Severus could only provide him with half of it.

Meanwhile, Albus Dumbledore was very happy that he could cut the interview short. While he would have liked to discontinue Divinations being taught at Hogwarts, he at least believed that Severus wouldn't lie about having heard a prophesy being made by Trelawney. Therefore, for all intents and purposes Sybill Trelawney qualified to teach Divinations.

And while he pretended to listen to Sybill talking about her great-great-grandmother's gift, he wondered what the prophesy Severus Snape had heard was about.

_It surely would have to be something very important if Severus was so interested to hear the second half,_ Dumbledore mused. _But as Severus regrettably is loyal to Lord Slytherin, he won't tell me the contents on his own accord. Maybe I could try to..._, Dumbledore began to plot.

**-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-Verbuar―Blinded-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-**

When Severus arrived at the driveway to Slytherin Manor, which was located at the outskirts of **Northallerton***, he walked straight to Lord Slytherin's study on the second floor.

"Enter," Tom Marvolo Riddle, the current Lord Slytherin and ruler of Magical Britain, called from behind the closed ebony door after Severus knocked on it twice.

Opening the door, Snape walked towards the pear wood desk situated near the big window overlooking the garden, behind which Lord Slytherin sat.

While Lord Slytherin was already fifty-three years old, he still looked like the handsome pale twenty-one year old wizard with dark wavy hair and black eyes he had been at the day of his crowning. And while he had been very young at that time, the wizards and witches of Britain soon loved him. Not because of his beauty, but because he was a fair and highly intelligent ruler.

Many of the history books even went so far as to say that Tom Marvolo Riddle becoming Lord Slytherin was the best thing that happened to Britain since the construction of Hogwarts. Though, this mostly had to do with how Tom came into power.

While Tom's grandfather, Marvolo Gaunt, had been a good ruler, his son and heir Morfin had been ruthless and cruel. So, everyone was relieved when Morfin died not even three years after becoming Lord Slytherin. As Morfin Gaunt didn't leave behind any children the title went to his only sibling, his sister Merope Riddle, nee Gaunt. But because the laws say that only a male could claim the Slytherin title, it was her twenty-one year old son, Tom, who became Lord Slytherin.

While some of the pure-bloods at the beginning were sceptical if the son of the Muggle-born Tom Riddle Sr., and therefore a half-blood, would be able to handle the role which had always been played by a pure-blood descendant of the great Salazar Slytherin himself, Tom soon showed that he was more than qualified for the job of the ruler of Magical Britain.

The only thing speaking against him was that he still was without a spouse and more importantly an heir, even if many women had tried and were still trying to gain their Lord's attention. Bellatrix Black, a famous healer, was currently the one woman most desperate to become Mrs Riddle as her parents had informed her that she would have to marry Rodolphus Lestrange if she was unsuccessful in her attempt to catch Lord Slytherin's heart.

"Ah, Severus," Tom said, when he saw who had sought him out tonight. "What brings you here tonight?" he asked, offering the Potions master a seat.

"My Lord," Severus greeted, sitting down in the comfortable green leather chair. "I come because I've important news," he began.

"And what may they be?" Riddle asked, knowing that Severus would never come to him after dinner time if it wasn't important. After all, it was well known that he didn't want to be disturbed after seven.

"I was in the Hog's Head tonight. And while I was waiting for the Potions ingredient dealer to arrive, I overheard a prophesy," Severus explained his unannounced visit.

"And what did the prophesy say?" Lord Slytherin asked, resting his chin on his folded hands, interested in what Snape had to report.

Though, Tom could not help but wonder why Severus would go to the Hog's Head. He knew that Severus only worked with top quality ingredients, something which wouldn't be sold at a place like the Hog's Head. So, Snape had to have gone to get something which was most likely illegal in Britain. But, this could wait until later, now he just wanted to know what the prophesy said.

"It said, 'The one with the power to assure our Lord's reign approaches ... born to those who have thrice stood with him, born as the seventh month dies ... and our Lord will make him his equal'" Severus repeated the part of the prophesy he had heard word for word to his Lord.

"Nothing more?" Riddle asked, hoping that it may have said how his reign would be secured.

"I believe that there was more," the Potions master admitted. "But," he added before he could be interrupted, "I was unable to hear it as the voice of the Seer was drowned out by Aberforth's loud yell. I, of course, tried to find out the rest but, unfortunately, the Seer had been alone in the room, so no one knows if anything else had been said or what it was."

"How very unfortunate," Riddle said in a calm, calculating voice.

"So, who else knows of this prophesy?" Lord Slytherin asked after some moments of silence.

"Besides you, my Lord, and myself, only the Seer and Albus Dumbledore are aware of the prophesy's existence," Severus answered the question.

"And why does the old fool know about it?" Tom questioned, angered that of all the people the meddlesome headmaster of Hogwarts knew about it.

Tom Riddle had never liked Albus Dumbledore because the old man had never treated him with the respect he deserved during his Hogwarts years, simply because Tom, while being part of the royal family, was still a half-blood which made him nothing more than a commoner in the eyes of the pure-blood traditionalist.

He would love to get him replaced as the headmaster of Hogwarts but with Dumbledore being the defeater of Gellert Grindelwald, he was still too popular to easily sack. So, Riddle had no other choice right now than to wait until the old man would either resign or die.

"Headmaster Dumbledore entered the room while I was trying to get the second half of the prophesy out of the Seer. Apparently the woman had been waiting for him to arrive because they had a job interview for the Divinations post scheduled," Severus explained Dumbledore's knowledge about the prophesy's existence. And because he knew that there was no love lost between Hogwarts' headmaster and Lord Slytherin, he added, "Though, Dumbledore doesn't know what the prophesy is about."

Riddle only nodded his head in response to the words. "You did good, Severus, in reporting the prophesy to me," Lord Slytherin praised. "You can go now," he then dismissed his Potions master, wanting to be alone to contemplate what he would do with the new knowledge.

_While Severus was unable to bring me the whole prophesy, the part he heard is at least informative enough to point me in the right direction, _Tom thought after Severus closed the study's ebony door behind him.

Especially the last sentences gave Lord Slytherin many details about the second person the prophesy was referring to.

_So, the person to assure my reign will be born at the end of July, most likely in this year,_ Lord Slytherin thought. _Also, this person will obviously be male. A male carrier even, or otherwise I wouldn't be able to marry him and thus make him my equal as the prophesy suggests,_ he deciphered from the last part of the prophesy.

_At least not many male carries are born, so that will considerably cut down the number of probable candidates,_ Tom thought with a smirk, getting up from his chair; it was time to finally retire for the day.

_It is a shame that prophesies aren't automatically **recorded*** when they're made,_ Lord Slytherin thought as he closed and locked his study's door to walk to the master bedroom of Slytherin Manor on the third floor.

Lord Slytherin of course was right with his assumption that the male being a carrier would severely cut down the possible persons the prophesy could refer to. Only about one out of fifty wizards had the ability to get pregnant. Thus, a male carrier―or a **Foreas*** to use the technical term―was only born every one or two years in Britain. And in nineteen-eighty only one boy would turn out to be a Foreas.

**-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-Verbuar―Blinded-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-**

Maybe Severus would never have told Tom Riddle about the prophesy if he had known the second half of it. Or maybe he would have done his best to make sure that the other path the prophesy proposed would have been followed instead of the path to destruction we unknowingly followed. But, as Fate had wanted it, on this snowy evening in February the path my life would take was already decided to be the path of destruction instead of the path of happiness it also offered. And so, the story of my life set out to end in a tragedy...

**-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-Verbuar―Blinded-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-**

**Verbuar: **Blinded in Albanian according to Google Translator.

**Northallerton:** As Great and Little Hangleton don't exist in reality, I searched for a real town which like Little Hangleton was located in the North of England and was about 200 miles away from London. I found Northallerton, which is about 230 miles away from London and located in the North of England. It also has a Country club nearby. So, it would be a good location for Slytherin's manor.

**No recorded prophesies:** In my AU a Prophesy room doesn't exist in the Ministry, so Tom can't find out the second half of the prophesy from the record which exists in canon.

**Foreas:** Greek for bearer/carrier according to Google Translator, though there it is actually written as Foréas.

**-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-Verbuar―Blinded-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-**

**AN: **Thank you for taking the time to read the prologue. Should I continue writing, or are the story warnings too much for you?


	2. Chapter 1

**Disclaimer****: **See prologue.

**Guide:** "Speech", _Thoughts, __**~letters and other written things**___, "_Parseltongue__" _

**Beta: **cuter-than-a-guinea-pig. All remaining errors are my own.

**AN: **Since enough people are interested in this story, here is the next chapter. Though, don't expect the next update to be this fast. Also, as Tom isn't a paedophile and Harry is telling the story of his life, the next couple of chapters will be about Harry's childhood. The romance part will follow later.

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**Important announcement to the ones who've read the prologue before 28.02.2013:**

Because of the feedback I changed one of the warnings. Now it is "**temporary** **Character Death after suicide**" as you encouraged me to have a HEA. Because of this Verbuar will have two main arcs: The Tragedy Arc without a HEA, which is immediately followed by the Romance Arc with a HEA.

This way I get to write the tragedy I intended to write, while you still get the HEA in the end. :) Besides, this way it matches the image picture of this story a lot better than before. ;) But on with the story...

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**-~-~- Verbuar -~-~-**

**-~-~-by Still waters are deep-~-~-**

**-~-~- Chapter 1 -~-~-**

There was a short time in my life where someone else could have been given my lot in life. In those short thirty-four hours both Severus Snape and Lord Slytherin couldn't help but assume for the time being that Neville Longbottom was the child the prophesy had spoken of.

**-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-Verbuar―Blinded-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-**

Dear, shy Neville was born on the thirtieth of July just after two o'clock in the afternoon to Frank and Alice Longbottom. He was, so far, the only boy to be born at the end of July. And while there was still roughly a day left for another child to greet the world in the time frame set by the prophesy, Neville seems to be the obvious candidate for Lord Slytherin's future consort.

Both Alice and Frank Longbottom were Aurors and had fought three times alongside Lord Slytherin against the rouge werewolf Fenrir Greyback and his pack, who didn't agree with Riddle's Wolfsbane Potion based werewolf policy and wanted to wreak havoc on every full moon night. Thus, they also fulfilled the prophesy's condition that the parents have thrice stood with Lord Slytherin.

Still, Tom Riddle decided to wait until the first of August to state his possible claim on the boy, when he was informed on that warm Wednesday afternoon in July that Alice Longbottom had given birth to a healthy baby boy.

Severus, on the other hand, was at that time sure in his belief that Neville would have to be the prophesied child. There weren't many women who could say that they thrice stood with Lord Slytherin. And out of those only two had been pregnant when the prophesy was made and also expecting a son. One of them was, of course, Alice Longbottom who had given birth earlier that day and the other woman was none other than Severus' own childhood friend Lily Potter, nee Evans. But, his beloved Lily's due day was on the eleventh of August. _So, only Longbottom's child could possibly be the prophesied one,_ Severus thought, secure that his assumption was correct.

But in the end, it seems like Tom Riddle was right to hesitate and wait until July was irrevocably over, as Fate thought it would be a good idea to send my mother into an early labour the next night.

**-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-Verbuar―Blinded-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-**

Severus was just about to change into his sleeping attire around eleven in the evening on the thirty-first of July when he received a Floo call from James Potter saying that Lily had gone into an early labour. Quickly grabbing everything he would need to help his friend and informing a house-elf on where he intended to go, he hasted to Godric's Hollow and my mother's side.

And while Severus was slightly concerned that I would be born nearly two weeks early, Lord Slytherin was almost ecstatic as the house-elf informed him why his Potions master had left Slytherin Manor at such a late hour.

Without any future thoughts about the one day old Neville Longbottom, then and there, Tom Marvolo Riddle immediately decided that I must be the boy the prophesy had spoken of.

When Lord Slytherin was asked some days later by my godfather Severus why he thought the prophesy referred to me and not Neville, he would argue that the time of my birth―11:52 pm, 31st July 1980―is obviously a clear sign that I must be the child of the prophesy. If the prophesy would have meant Neville, then it would have been phrased 'as the seventh month _is about to_ _end_' instead of '_dies_' was his justification.

Though, to tell the truth, I myself believe that Tom had simply chosen me because I was, like himself, a half-blood. Maybe it had also something to do with Albus Dumbledore and his opinion that only pure-bloods could achieve something big and Tom simply wanted to prove him wrong with showing that another half-blood would secure the current half-blooded Lord Slytherin's reign. Who knows?

**-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-Verbuar―Blinded-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-**

With I being born premature, the eleventh of August changed from being my expected birthday to be the day of my baptism; and unknown to most guests, at that the day I also became informally engaged to Lord Slytherin.

Knowing my father, he would have loved to announce, not only that my godfathers were his best friend, Sirius Black, and his wife's best friend, Severus Snape, but also that I would probably be the one to finally marry their beloved ruler, Lord Slytherin.

But fortunately for me, Lord Slytherin had asked―or demanded to be precise―my father to keep this little verbal engagement a secret until Riddle himself chose to announce it.

Besides, there was also this tiny, little condition to their arrangement which said that if I didn't turn out to be a Foreas, the engagement would be off immediately. And James Potter wouldn't dare to risk embarrassing himself and the Potter name with bragging about his child being the future consort of Lord Slytherin, only to have to eat his words seven years later when the engagement was off because his son didn't turn out to be a Foreas. So, under those circumstances, it was a good thing that a Foreas only gained the ability to carry children on his seventh birthday and couldn't be identified as one before that time.

Because of this, traditionally soon after their seventh birthday every wizard with at least one magical parent underwent the **Elencho Foreas***,as the test determining if your child was a Foreas or not was formally called. Some parents even eagerly awaited the Elencho Foreas if the boy was not the firstborn because it would enable them to marry their younger son off to influential families.

However, my at that time still unknown Foreas status didn't deter Tom from already secretly stating his claim on me for all to see with gifting me with an earring. To not make his claim to obvious, he decided against the traditional earrings Lord Slytherin's consorts wore. So, instead of a pair of silver snake earrings, he chose a pair of lightening bolts made of platinum with one emerald on top of them for me to wear.

Thus, as a symbol of his marriage offer, he sent one of the lightening bolt earrings to my father on my baptism day, together with the promise to gift me with the second one after my Foreas status would be verified and the request to tell no one, not even me, that the earring was a gift from Lord Slytherin and that I would have to wear the earring at all times.

Of course, my father was more than happy to comply with his Lord's wishes and promptly secured the platinum lightening bolt earring to my left ear; and when asked from who it was from he would say that it was a present from a valued family friend. However, the earring wasn't all Tom gave me for my birth and baptism.

While Lord Slytherin wondered why both his second and first in-command―James Potter and Lucius Malfoy―thought it would be a good idea to name his Potions master the godfather of their firstborn children, it didn't stop Tom from not so subtly punishing Severus for being unable to provide him with the second half of the prophesy.

So, along with my platinum earring, he sent an over one meter tall black cuddly toy dog because he knew for a fact that there was no love lost between Severus and my second godfather Sirius Black, whose Animagus form was the exact copy of the cuddly toy.

Surprisingly, his plan backfired. Instead of Severus, who was angered when he saw the gigantic plush toy, Sirius was the one who made a ruckus and yelled out, "Dammit, why didn't I come up with such a gift?!"

Glancing accusingly around the guests, he tried to find the culprit behind the 'stolen' Best-Present-Ever idea, muttering angrily under his breath, "Now, even if Harry will love the toy―which I'm sure he will―Snivellus can still say that it wasn't from me."

"Don't worry, Sirius. I'm sure that Harry will love the real Padfoot more than the stupid cuddly toy copy," Remus Lupin tried to cheer up his friend and lover.

"If I were you, Lupin, I wouldn't call that particular plush toy stupid," Severus suddenly spoke up from beside the two Marauders.

"And why should we listen to you, Snivellus?" Sirius bawled at Snape, angry at the Potions master's interference.

"Because, Black," Severus sneered, his voice clearly saying 'You're a dunderhead', "that chubby toy dog is a present from Lord Slytherin."

As intended this made Sirius shut up in an instant. With the mission to silence and embarrass the annoying dogfather―as Severus called Black in the privacy of his mind―accomplished, Snape left the pair before Black could come out of his momentary stupor, a satisfied smirk firmly placed on his face.

The Potions master's smirk grew even wider when he noticed that his friend Lucius was also looking in the direction of the black toy dog. While most people wouldn't notice the fury and jealousy hidden behind the famous Malfoy mask, Severus knew the blond man well enough to detect those hidden emotions underneath the calm surface.

Poor_ Lucius,_ Severus thought. _While the blond is Lord Slytherin's first in-command, his son __Draco had only received a child-size plush dragon. What a shame it must be to see that Potter, as only the second-in-command, had received an overly large plush dog as a present for his son. Oh, if _dear_ Lucius only knew that Harry's toy is so much larger because Riddle plans to marry the boy in the future, _Severus thought, having rightly guessed from the over-the-top size toy that Lord Slytherin had decided that Harry was the prophesied child.

_Oh, how his face will be the perfect image of jealousy and anger when he learns about our Lord's intentions, _the Potions master thought amused, walking over to where Lucius was standing with his two month old son, Draco.

_It seems like his plan to show off Lord Slytherin's present to his son backfired, _Severus thought when he noticed that Draco was holding onto his silver and green plush toy dragon, which was only about twenty centimetres long, opposed to the one metre long plush dog I received.

_At least both Black and Lucius will grace me with some amusements before I have to go to Hogwarts next week,_ Severus thought, his good mood dropping.

He hadn't wanted to become Hogwarts' new Potions Professor but as Lord Slytherin heavily distrusted Albus Dumbledore, he had ordered Snape to apply for the newly opened post. This way Severus would be able to prevent the Headmaster of Hogwarts to manipulate me.

_I really hate how happy Albus looked when I told him yesterday that I want to become his new Potions master, _Severus thought. _Knowing the meddling old fool, he surely was more happy about chances to elicit the prophesy from me in the future than having gotten a new staff member. Or since when does someone immediately employ a new teacher after only saying, "I would like to replace Professor Slughorn."? _Severus argued._ Thank Merlin that I am a far better Occlumens than even Lord Slytherin, or Albus would surely love to mind rape me every time we see each other until he found out what the prophesy said, _Snape thought, already loathing his new 'job'.

However, the prospect of having to teach dunderheads for the next eighteen years and the fact that the party was thrown in my honour, didn't stop Severus from also paying attention to his other godson who was asleep in Lucius' arms. It really was a good thing for him that Draco and I would grew up to be the bests of friends or otherwise Severus would have become the centre of a tug war between me and Draco.

**-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-Verbuar―Blinded-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-**

Lucius and Sirius weren't the only ones who had been looking with negative emotions at the big black plush toy that day. My father James Potter was busy glancing back and forth between the dog and my sleeping form in my mother's arms. It seems like my dear father was second-guessing his decision to have me engaged to Lord Slytherin this early in my life.

My father, of course, had been happy and greatly honoured that his Lord would not only hold him back after a meeting to congratulate him on his son's birth, but also was proposing an informal engagement to the same son. But now, when he had some time to let it all sink in, he wondered if he was right to so easily agree with his Lord.

In the magical world it was a tradition that the firstborn son would be the heir to the family name and fortune. But if I married Riddle, then I couldn't become the Potter heir any longer. The fact that Lord Slytherin would already be in his early seventies when the wedding would actually occur was also a small thing he worried about, because a teenager surely wouldn't find a seventy-something year old man remotely attractive.

However, he quashed the first point of worry with the argument that he and my mother were still young and had easily fifty or more years left to have another child who could carry on the Potter name. The second one was quashed with how well Lord Slytherin had aged so far. If his Lord at the age of fifty-three still looked like twenty-one, he surely wouldn't look a day older than twenty-five by the time I graduated from Hogwarts.

_And a seventeen year old wouldn't have anything against marrying a twenty-five year old looking, overly handsome and attractive, and not to forget powerful ruler of Magical Britain, would they? _My father argued in his head and forgot all about his earlier worries as he walked over to Sirius and Remus, hoping that he could calm down his friend's current display of temper.

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And this is how, not even two weeks after my birth, I became informally engaged to Lord Slytherin, only because Tom Riddle was sure in his belief that I, and not Neville Longbottom, had to be the Foreas who would secure his reign.

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**Elencho Foreas:** Carrier testing in Greek according to Google Translator, though there it is actually written as élencho foréa.

**Lightening bolts earrings:** An image on how I imagine the earrings to look like can be found on my profile page. Though, the bolts I imagine are thinner than shown there. ( )

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**AN: **Please tell me how you liked this chapter or comment on the changed warning and plot line.

The next update should be sometime in April/May. Until then...


	3. Chapter 2

**Disclaimer****: **See prologue.

**Guide:** "Speech", _Thoughts, __**~letters and other written things**___, "_Parseltongue__" _

**Beta:**cuter-than-a-guinea-pig. All remaining errors are my own.

**Warnings for this chapter:** Torture and injuries

**AN: **Here is another chapter for you. Earlier than previously announced, but I don't think you mind not having to wait another two months for an update. ;) By the way, you can see the current writing status on my profile page.

* * *

**-~-~- Verbuar -~-~-**

**-~-~-by Still waters are deep-~-~-**

**-~-~- Chapter 2 -~-~-**

The first year of my life was full of big events. My first real smile in September, the first time I slept through the night in November, my first ride on Padfoot―the Animagus, not the cuddly toy―on Christmas morning, my first step some days before my first birthday in July to name a few. Though, they all paled in comparison to what happened on Halloween in nineteen-eighty-one when I was fifteen months old.

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My parents had decided to host a Halloween party. And while I was still too young to understand the meaning behind the Wizarding holiday Samhain and the Muggle customs of Halloween, it didn't stop my father from dressing me up in a lion costume―courtesy of my godfather Sirius―and inviting my two best friends, Neville and Draco, for the celebration.

Of course, their parents were also invited to the party together with Sirius, Remus, Peter and Severus. Though, the last three guests had to cancel. Remus couldn't come because he was away on the continent to fulfil his duty as one of Lord Slytherin's ambassadors. Peter had owled a letter saying that he had gotten a cold and didn't want to risk infecting the other guests, especially not the small kids.

Severus, on the other hand, had to excuse himself because Headmaster Dumbledore hadn't allowed him to leave Hogwarts on a school night, especially not one where the kids were on sugar highs because of all the sweets they ate during the Halloween dinner and some of them would most likely end up being in the need of one of Severus' potions. So no, the new Potions master of Hogwarts couldn't leave the grounds on Halloween.

While I was happily munching on a pumpkin pastry and Draco took a sip of his pumpkin juice, the two of us sitting together on the carpeted living room floor, Alice Longbottom had just picked up her son Neville to change his sully diaper.

The rest of the adults were watching us kids while exchanging funny stories about us. For example, Narcissa told them about how her little dragon—who for the occasion was dressed in a dragon costume—hadn't wanted to go to sleep one afternoon because he wanted to continue playing with his toy blocks—or to be accurate, wanted to continue watching how the house-elf Dobby made the block tower higher and higher with every new piece he levitated.

So, to make her son go to bed, Narcissa had told him that he would get a piece of apple pie for afternoon tea. Though, Dobby could only bake the pie if he wasn't busy levitating blocks, she explained to him in a way even a nearly one and a half year old could understand. It was funny to see how fast little Draco stopped saying his favourite word "No" and instead rushed, as fast as he could on his little legs, towards his bed at the promise of his favourite dessert.

However, the joyous laughs of the adults were interrupted by a loud "Bang" when the front door of our house was blasted out of its hinges.

Everyone instantly grabbed their wands, ready to fight off whoever was currently attacking them. The only one who didn't reach for her wand was Narcissa. The blonde Malfoy matriarch sprinted, together with my mother, over to where Draco and I were sitting on the floor. While my mother stood guard over her and us, Narcissa picked up the both of us and made a rush for the Floo—the quickest way to safety available for us; Lily hot on her heels.

Though, before we could reach the safety of the fireplace where Alice was already waiting with Neville in her arms, Fenrir Greyback entered my parents' living room together with seven of his pack members. And while that Halloween night wasn't a full moon and the afternoon sun was still shining outside, the werewolves were still half-transformed, sporting more than the normal amount of body hair, as well as sharp claws on their hands. So, they all had obviously consumed an incorrectly brewed version of the Wolfsboon Potion. This potion had the opposite effects of the Wolfsbane potion and would allow a werewolf to transform into his wolf form even if it was still light outside and the full moon days away. Of course, under Tom Riddle's reign this potion was classified as illegal.

"The big, bad wolf and his friends have arrived, my little sheep," Greyback barked out as he ran into the living room, blindly casting some Blasting Curses around the room.

"And don't forget the little lambs," Greyback's fifty-five year old looking beta added, a hungry look on his face as he stared at Draco and I in Narcissa's arms. Fenrir's second in command was known to have a special liking for small children. The younger, the better was his motto. Thus, it wasn't surprising for the occupants of the room when he made a mad rush towards the blonde Malfoy woman before she could escape with his prey.

They needed every fighter they could get to fend off the rouge werewolves as they were already outnumbered. Therefore, Narcissa somehow managed to also take Neville into her arms, so that Alice could stay behind and fight too. While my mother threw some Floo powder into the flames, the beta wolf was already only two metres away from me and Draco.

The blond's mother hastily called out, "Malfoy Manor". But before she could reach the safety of the green flames, the werewolf already lunged with his razor sharp claws after me, as I was the closest to him.

"Not my son!" my mother, Lily, screamed as she threw her own body in the claws' path, letting out a scream of pain as her left shoulder was torn open, leaving behind a deep red bleeding line. But, she would take the pain any day if it meant that I would be safe.

So, with a grimaced smile on her face, she fired a cutting hex back at her attacker as soon as the flames behind Narcissa Malfoy had turned from green to their normal orange-red colour.

_Thank Merlin, the boys are safe,_ was all the adults thought as they watched the fireplace before they started to attack the intruders with everything they had.

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As soon as Narcissa was in the safety of Malfoy Manor, she called out for Dobby to bring her the spare playpen. After putting a crying Neville, a frightened Draco and a surprisingly totally and unnaturally calm me down in the playpen, she went back to the Floo to call for help.

First, she contacted her sister Bellatrix at the Lestrange Manor. Not only was her sister a famous healer, but also a powerful duellist. So, depending on how the fight went Bella could either help fighting or she could start on healing anyone who was gravely injured.

After Narcissa had told her what was happening, Bellatrix immediately flooed to my home to help my parents, her husband of seven months and brother-in-law in tow.

Next on Narcissa's contact list was Severus. He, like Bella, was a powerful dueller, but that wasn't why she called him. As a Potions master, he would be able to supply them with any healing potions they may need.

"Severus," the blonde called out into Snape's living room at Hogwarts.

"Hello, Narcissa," the Potions master answered her in his deep voice as he walked from his armchair towards the fireplace.

"Something terrible happened. Greyback is attacking the Potters' home," she hastily explained her reason for calling.

That, of course, got Severus' attention. "I'm on my way," he said, rushing into his bedroom to grab his emergency potions kit that he always had ready for situations just like this one. He didn't even think what Dumbledore would say about his abrupt departure when the headmaster heard of this.

But, the Potions master wasn't the only one who was spurred into action. Lord Slytherin got up from his armchair when he heard that I was in danger.

"Are the children safe?" he immediately asked Narcissa as he turned into the view of the fireplace. Severus had told him about the Halloween party my parents were throwing for me and my two friends.

"I'm sorry, my Lord. I haven't seen you," she began, excusing her lack of a proper greeting. "But, yes, the children are safe. I'd been able to escape with them before the fight could really start."

"Good," Riddle said, relieved that I and the others were safe.

Just then Severus re-entered the room with his emergency potions kit. "If you'll let us through," he asked the Malfoy matriarch.

Narcissa didn't hesitate to cancel the Floo call, so that Severus' Floo would be free for him and Tom to travel to my family's house in Godric's Hollow.

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"How dare you to attack my Drakky-poo and my Harry-kins," an angry Bellatrix Lestrange yelled as she stepped out of the Floo, wand at the ready.

While the woman was a brilliant witch, both Draco and I hated the nicknames Bella gave us when we were still little kids and continued to use during the rest of our lives. But then, when wasn't someone brilliant also a bit mad? At least her madness was restricted to the occasional baby-talk when she was really angry or really happy about something. And for a Black, this was a rather mild form of insanity.

Looking around, she saw that her brother-in-law Lucius had already been able to immobilise and to constrain one of the werewolves and was now busy fighting against a second one. Her cousin Sirius was standing back to back with my father, fighting against three of the half-transformed wolves who had surrounded them. My mother Lily was trying her best to defend herself against the beta of the pack with her injured left shoulder.

Frank Longbottom was currently trying his best to finish off his opponent, so that he could assist his wife Alice, who was currently about to lose against Fenrir Greyback. The leader of the werewolf back had instantly run towards the brunette and attacked her with vigour.

"Oh, you'll pay, you little bitch, for severely injuring my mate," Greyback snarled at Alice, who was already heavily wounded and lying on the ground, unable to defend herself any further.

Not losing any more time, Bellatrix cast a dark curse Fenrir's way, getting him away from Alice just in time before he could make the final blow and kill Neville's mother.

"Cover me, Rodolphus," she yelled over her shoulder towards her husband, who had just emerged from the fireplace. She sprinted over towards Alice's side to try and save her life while Rodolphus shielded the two women from the attacking werewolves.

Just as the newly arrived Rabastan was about to run over and confront Greyback, Frank finally defeated his own werewolf and attacked the alpha, intending to avenge his wife. Not wanting to deny the head of the Longbottom family his retribution, Rabastan instead decided to help out my godfather and father, not having noticed that my mother, would have need his help more than them.

Greyback was ecstatic as he saw that his new opponent would be Frank Longbottom. "Don't worry, little sheep, I would have come after you too anyway," was all the werewolf said before he attacked the husband of the woman he had nearly killed moments ago.

As the fight continued, Lucius succeeded in injuring his opponent's left leg and Rabastan killed one of the three werewolves he was fighting against with James and Sirius. With two down and one of them killed, the werewolves were now outnumbered―five of them against seven wizards and witches who could still fight, as now Frank was also too injured to count as a serious opponent.

So, when finally Severus and Lord Slytherin arrived at the scene, it wasn't surprising when Greyback ordered, "Retreat! I finished what I came here for." Though that didn't stop Fenrir to claw once more at Frank, as well as the beta wolf having a final blow at my mother, who screamed out a loud cry of pain as her lower stomach was cut opened while she had been distracted by Greyback's order of retraction.

While the werewolves fled the scene, Severus and my father immediately ran over to where my mother was sitting on the floor, clutching her stomach, trying to stop the blood from flowing out. And what they saw when they finally reached her wasn't pretty at all. Severus was wondering how Lily was still conscious.

Not losing any time, the Potions master instantly started to cast healing charms and giving her potions to help with the healing process, as well as a Blood-Replenishing Potion. He dearly hoped that she would be all right.

With Lily being taken care of by Severus, Tom, the only one besides Snape and Bellatrix who knew advance healing spells, hurried towards Frank Longbottom. While he was in a better shape than his wife, he was still in danger of dying due to blood loss or internal bleeding. So, first he checked for any internal injuries. Finding that one of the man's lungs was punctured, Lord Slytherin cast a spell which would not heal the wound but at least would help Frank with breathing until Bellatrix or another healer could have a look at it.

Just as Sirius, Lucius and Rabastan re-entered the living room―the three men had run after the werewolves but had been unable to catch any more of them as they quickly Apparated away as soon as they were outside of the Anti-Apparition wards―Bellatrix had walked over to her beloved Lord.

"How is she faring?" Tom asked Bella about Alice, pointing his head in the direction of the injured witch.

"She is so gravely injured that I had to put her in a healing coma. It will take months before she'll be well enough to leave St Mungo's," was the healers honest evaluation of the woman's current situation.

"But she'll make it?" Frank asked in a raspy voice, having to know that Alice would be all right in the end.

"Yes, she should make it," Bella answered. And with a sigh of relief, Frank Longbottom closed his eyes. He was utterly exhausted from his own injuries and needed the rest.

"I better put him in a healing coma, too," Bellatrix Lestrange said after she cast her own very advanced diagnostic spell which had revealed that Frank, in addition to his punctured lung, also had a small bleeding in his brain. So, it was for the best to put him in a magical coma to prevent him from getting worse.

"Any luck with catching some of them?" Rodolphus asked his brother.

"No," Rabastan answered with a shake of his head.

"At least we still have the one I captured at the beginning," Lucius added his own two cents.

"The one Frank knocked out regrettably had gained conscious again just before they started to retreat. Though, it's obvious from Greyback's words that they came here to attack the Longbottoms because Frank had been able to cut of the right arm of his mate and he wanted to take revenge on them," the blond said.

"The fact that he could at the same time have a go at the rest of us, surely was a pretty little boon to him too," Sirius added. "Though, I wonder how he knew that Frank and Alice would be here today and not at their own home?" he wondered aloud.

"That is something I would love to know too," Lord Slytherin said.

"I'm sure that I can get something out of him," Lucius told them, kicking the stunned half-transformed werewolf he had captured.

"Lucius, Rabastan, take the prisoner to the dungeon in Slytherin Manor. James, Severus, Bellatrix and Rodolphus bring the injured to St Mungo's. I'll go to Malfoy Manor and inform Narcissa that everyone is still alive," Riddle divided the tasks. Purposefully making it so that he could check up on me in person.

"We'll all meet tomorrow afternoon to discuss what to do next," Lord Slytherin added, just before he left the room and flooed to Malfoy Manor.

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When Tom arrived, he was greeted by a rare sight. The stoic Malfoy matriarch was kneeling on the ground in front of the playpen, singing a song to calm Neville and Draco down, who were still a bit hysterical about the sudden werewolf attack.

I, on the other hand, had been calmly sitting in one corner of the playpen. That was until I noticed Tom standing behind the blonde woman. Then, I pushed myself up into a standing position with the help of the playpen's wooden bars and stared unblinking right into Tom's dark brown, nearly black, eyes. When he returned my look, I held out my arms in front of me and demanded, "Up!"

That didn't only make Tom chuckle in amusement, but also made Narcissa stop singing.

"My Lord," she greeted, when she noticed for the first time that she wasn't alone with us kids any longer.

"Narcissa," Lord Slytherin answered in turn, nodding his head towards her and stepping towards me to pick me up in his arms for the first time in my life.

"Everyone is still alive, but the Longbottoms and Lily had to be brought to St Mungo's because of their injuries," he informed her while he petted my hair and I listened to his calmly beating heart, enjoying the contact with his warm chest, as well as his attention.

"But, don't worry they'll live," he added, when he noticed Narcissa's face having paled at his news.

"Thank Merlin," the blonde said, relieved.

"Lucius should join us in an hour. He had to take care of one of the attackers first," he further informed Narcissa, still patting my black hair.

"Would you like to wait in the parlour for Lucius' arrival?" she asked her Lord, as he obviously intended to stay until her husband returned.

"Lead the way," was his answer. So, Narcissa picked up both her son and Neville and walked from the Floo room to the parlour. Tom following after her with me nearly asleep in his arms.

Once there, instead of putting me down in the parlour's playpen with Neville and Draco, Tom sat down in one of the armchairs with me in his lap, saying that he didn't want to wake me up by putting me down with the other two children.

"If I may ask, my Lord, why were you visiting Severus at Hogwarts?" Narcissa cautiously asked Riddle. While it was know that Lord Slytherin was good friends with Abraxas Malfoy and also his son Lucius, Narcissa wasn't as well acquainted on a personal level with her Lord. How Severus had been able to so easily gain Lord Slytherin's favour and thus, was allowed to speak freely with Tom Riddle, even she, with all her connections, didn't know.

"I've heard that Dumbledore had forbidden him to leave the grounds today to attend the Potter's party, so I thought I would keep him company instead. It's never nice if one has to spend the holidays all alone," Lord Slytherin answered, not giving away anything of importance.

"That's very generous of you," Narcissa answered, trying to find any hidden motives besides the obvious―checking up on what Albus Dumbledore was up to.

And Narcissa wasn't wrong in her belief that there was also another reason behind the visit. Though, even in a million years she wouldn't have guessed that his ulterior motive was in fact the special Hogwarts Halloween dinner, he secretly loved ever since his first year at Hogwarts.

Even though Tom Riddle was the ancestor of Salazar Slytherin and the current Lord Slytherin, the Hogwarts' house-elves strictly refused to give Tom, or even his house-elves, the recipes for their Halloween specialities. They said that the recipes belonged to Helga Hufflepuff and not to Hogwarts, thus Tom had no right to know the secret behind all the deserts and other heavenly things they cooked on the last day of October. So, if Tom wanted to eat Hogwarts' special Halloween food, he had no other choice but to go to the castle on Samhain.

But of course Lord Slytherin would never tell Narcissa that, so instead of further commenting on his reasons to why he'd been visiting Severus, Riddle took a sip of his black tea, forcing Narcissa to change the topic.

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"Drakky-poo, Harry-kins," Bellatrix's overly high voice suddenly interrupted my peaceful sleep half an hour after Tom had entered the parlour. "Don't be afraid anymore, your Aunty Bella is here," she yelled as she opened the parlour door.

She suddenly halted in her steps when she noticed that I was sitting in Tom's lap, cuddled up to his chest and was currently rubbing my tired eyes. It wasn't every day or even any day that Tom Riddle would allow a child to sit in his lap. And while she knew that I was only a little child, she couldn't help to still be jealous of me because she wanted to be the one to sit in her beloved Lord's lap and do something else than just innocently sleeping.

"Bellatrix," Tom scolded her for waking me up. While he gave her a nasty glare, he protectively also put his left arm around me, hugging me closer to his chest.

"I'm sorry, my Lord," she excused herself, giving Lord Slytherin a curtsy. "I was just so worried about my little nephews. Surely the half-transformed werewolves must have scarred them."

"Don't worry, Bellatrix. Little Harry has been sleeping peacefully the entire time," Tom assured. The '_until you so rudely woke him up_' stayed unsaid but was obvious to all of the adults.

"So, Harry, would you like to continue sleeping," Tom asked me as Bella turned to fuss over Draco and Neville. She didn't want to anger Tom any more with fussing over me.

"No," I told him while shaking my head vehemently as every one year old would at the mentioning of a nap.

"Would you like to go and join Draco and Neville then?" Tom asked further, even if he would like nothing better than to keep me in his arms. Though, why he felt that way about me he didn't know. After all, it was only the first time today that we had properly met each other and I was just a child in his eyes right now, not a potential lover.

"No," I once again answered him. This time purposefully looking away from where Bella was nearly suffocating little Neville as she pressed him to her bosom. Even if I was only a little over a year old, I already hated Bellatrix's overbearing nature when she was in her mother-hen mode. Though, I still loved her special cookies with lots of Smarties in them. After all, they were the reason why she was my favourite aunt.

"And what would you like to do instead?" he finally asked me, not able to come up with any more alternatives.

"Way," I said, crossing my arms over my chest, already starting to pout.

Fortunately for me, Tom did interpret my words correctly. So, instead of asking me if I wanted to go away, he questioned, "You want to stay here?" To which I enthusiastically nodded my head in confirmation.

"As you wish, little one," Tom surrendered to my demand with a kiss on my head. Both of us were happy that we could stay just like we were for a little while longer.

"You're really good with children, my Lord," Narcissa commented a minute later after Tom had wandlessly and wordlessly conjured some soap-bubbles for me to play with. I was letting out a happy laugh every time I got a bubble to burst.

When nearly ten minutes later my father and Lucius Malfoy joined the six of us in the parlour, I was excitedly clapping my hands, demanding, "More, more!" as moments ago I had destroyed the last soap-bubble Tom had conjured.

"I see that my little man is having a lot of fun," my father said while he walked over towards where I was still sitting in Tom's lap. He was not only relieved to see that I was happy, but also that I felt very comfortable around my hopefully future husband, Tom.

Even when my father was ruffling my hair, I didn't stop my little chant of, "More, more!" as Tom still hadn't complied with my wishes.

"He is very easy to please," Tom said, just before he conjured some more soap-bubbles for me to play with.

"How is Lily?" Narcissa asked about my mother after Lucius had joined his wife on the loveseat and my father had sat down beside Lord Slytherin. For the moment James had decided to let me sit in Lord Slytherin's lap as Riddle obviously didn't mind having me sitting there, even if some of the bubble soap was wetting his expensive trousers.

"Under her circumstances, she is rather well. The potions Severus had given her had helped immensely with speeding up her recovery time. Her healer said that she should be free to leave in three to four days," my father answered. He purposefully withheld that while my mother would live, she most likely wouldn't be able to have any more children because of the deep stomach wound. But this wasn't something you shared with non-family members.

"I'm glad to hear this. Do you know how the Longbottoms are doing?" she questioned further.

"The healer in charge had said that without your sister both of them would have been dead. If Bellatrix hadn't immediately started to treat Alice when she arrived at our home, she would have died while we were still busy fighting against the werewolves. And even if Alice could have been brought to St Mungo's at that time, not many healers there would have been able to save her," James explained Bella's heroic deed.

Bellatrix was too busy dotting over Draco and Neville to really listen to the others' conversation, but when Tom praised, "Yes, Bellatrix really is an extraordinary talented healer," she turned away from my two friends to look at him.

"You flatter me, my Lord," she tried to play down her worth. Though, on the inside she was very happy for Tom to praise her like that. It would take another year or two until she would be able to get over her crush on Tom and could fall in love with her husband.

"And you are too modest," Tom answered. After all, it was her and not him who noticed that Frank Longbottom had acquired a brain injury. That comment made Bellatrix blush while I laughed as another soap-bubble was destroyed.

"Oh, before I forget," my father began. "I've already contacted Augusta Longbottom about what happened to her son and daughter-in-law. She said that she'll be here shortly to pick up Neville."

"I'm sure that Neville will be happy to be back in his own home," Narcissa said. Opposed to me, Neville didn't seem to be overly comfortable when he was visiting the Malfoys, or anyone else for the matter, when he couldn't see his parents. It would be good for him to at least sleep in his own bed when he would be separated from his parents for a while.

"Speaking of home, I've offered James that he and his family could stay here until their house is repaired," Lucius informed his wife. He had already asked my father if he wanted to stay when they'd been walking together towards the parlour.

_Why didn't I think of this,_ Tom scolded himself when he heard the offer. It would have been the perfect opportunity for him to get to know me a bit better, even if I was just one year old at that time.

"Did you hear, my little dragon?" Narcissa asked her son. "Harry will be staying with us for the next days, so you can play all day long."

That made Draco stop playing with Neville, Bellatrix and his dragon toys in the playpen and demand "Up". Bellatrix, of course, complied with his wish and took him in her arms so that she could carry him over to his parents while she sat down with Neville in her lap in the armchair next to her sister as we all waited for Neville to be picked up by his grandmother.

**-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-Verbuar―Blinded-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-**

When my father and Narcissa were getting me and Draco ready for the night, Lucius and Tom were discussing in the study what the blond had been able to get out of their prisoner.

"The rogue werewolf told me that Peter Pettigrew had been the one to inform Greyback about the Potter's Halloween party and who would be there," Lucius reported.

"Apparently some days ago, while Pettigrew was out in the woods to collect some potion ingredients as a part of his job for an apothecary, the little rat ran into Greyback and two of his pack members. To save his own useless hide, he told them that the Potter's Halloween party would be a good opportunity for Greyback to get revenge, as not only the Longbottoms but also James and I would be there," the blond elaborated.

"And where is Pettigrew now?" Tom asked in a cold voice. He knew that Peter was one of my father's closest friends from his time at Hogwarts and it was beyond his comprehension why such a _good_ friend would do such a thing. If he had been able to escape, he could at least have warned his friends of the impending attack.

"The werewolf told us that Greyback let him go after he threatened him to secrecy," Lucius answered. "Both Lestranges are already searching for him as we speak."

"Good," Tom said. "Inform me immediately if he is found. I will punish him for his betrayal myself," he said before he left the room to return to Slytherin Manor.

_Oh, the little rat would pay for endangering my Harry,_ was his last thought before Tom let sleep claim him that night.

**-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-Verbuar―Blinded-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-**

Nearly a week later, the Lestranges had finally been able to track down Peter Pettigrew. As it turned out, he had been hiding in the cellar of Honeydukes in his rat Animagus form, eating sweets to his heart's content.

"Hello, Peter," Lord Slytherin greeted as he entered the cell the Animagus was currently in.

"M-my Lord," the man answered with an unsteady voice, fearful of what was to come.

"I've heard that you're the reason why the Potters and their guests have been attacked by Fenrir Greyback and his pack," Tom began.

"I-it was-wasn't on purpose, m-my Lord. Th-they would have killed m-me, if I hadn't told th-them about the p-party," he stammered out, trying to save his life.

"I also heard of that, Peter. And since I'm a very forgiving lord, I've decided to let you get away with only a light punishment as no one was killed by your actions," Tom Riddle said, purposefully playing with Pettigrew's emotions.

"You are too generous, my Lord," Peter immediately said, relief clearly written on his face as he bowed in front of Lord Slytherin, even going so far as to kiss Riddle's boots. The house-elves would have to clean them before Tom would even think of wearing them again.

"Are you ready to accept the punishment I chose for you?" Tom asked.

"Y-yes, my Lord. Wha-whatever you believe I de-deserve," Pettigrew stammered once more, fearful of the pain he would surely feel soon.

"I'm glad to hear that, Peter," Lord Slytherin said with a smile as he took out a sharp knife. "But don't worry, instead of being sentenced to death because of treachery, you'll only have to cut off your left little finger as retribution," Tom said as he held out the knife to Peter.

Lord Slytherin wasn't worried at all to hand over a weapon to a prisoner. First, because he was perfectly capable to defend himself against the knife. And Second, because the knife was charmed so that you could only cut off fingers with it. If you intend to use it for any other purposes, be it to kill yourself or slit open someone else's throat, the knife would be as dull as a toothbrush.

"M-my Lord?" Peter asked disbelievingly, not taking the knife from his Lord. He couldn't believe what Riddle had just said. He had to cut off his own finger?

"I don't have all day, Peter," Tom said when Pettigrew didn't make any move to grab the knife from him. "I'm sure that you don't want to be in here longer than necessary, do you?" Lord Slytherin asked in encouragement.

"N-no, my Lord," he answered, hesitantly taking the knife into his right hand.

After about two minutes, Pettigrew had finally been able to talk himself into cutting off his own finger. _You'll be free soon,_ was his favourite mantra. But, just as he was about to make the cut, Tom stopped him.

"No, Peter. Not just the first two knuckles," he reprimanded him. "You have to cut off the whole finger."

It took Peter Pettigrew nearly four minutes after Riddle's comment to bring himself to finally completely cut off his little finger.

"Well done, Peter," Lord Slytherin mockingly congratulated. "You can keep the knife as you'll need it again tomorrow," were Riddle's last words before he exited the cell, letting the traitor finally come to the realisation that he wouldn't leave his prison any time soon.

Once outside of Pettigrew's hearing range, he ordered, "Lucius, make sure that he cuts off one finger each day. If he doesn't do it himself, then put him under the Imperius Curse. I'll be back when it's time for him to start on his right hand."

"As you wish, my Lord," the blond answered with a nod of his head.

**-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-Verbuar―Blinded-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-**

As promised, Lord Slytherin came back after five days to visit the prisoner. Like he had expected, after the first day Pettigrew didn't cut off his fingers on his own any longer, so Lucius had to put him under the Imperius Curse for the task.

Peter was happy to see his Lord once again in his cell. Surely this had to mean that they would finally let him go. _With my fingerless left hand they won't be able to __make me cut off the fingers on my right hand simply because I can't__ hold the knife to cut off the fingers on my right hand, right?_ Peter argued. _Except, if they also want me to cut off my toes. But surely they would have started with my toes first before cutting off my fingers? No, Lord Slytherin visiting me in my cell can only mean one thing; I will finally be free,_ Peter thought hopefully.

Tom loved the hopeful and eager look on Peter's face. _Oh, yes torturing him will be fun,_ he thought gleefully.

"Peter, I come to you because I have a gift for you," he said, before he pulled out his wand and cast a spell which gave Pettigrew artificial silver fingers as a replacement for his lost ones.

"You are so gracious, my Lord," Peter said with tears in his eyes when he saw his new fingers, watching them move with awe.

"I'm glad that you like them," was all Riddle said before he let the door close behind him. This time Lucius wouldn't need to Imperio Pettigrew as the artificial fingers would grab the knife of their own accord and cut off one of Pettigrew's right fingers per day.

"Lucius, tell your sister-in-law that she can torture the traitor in five days to her heart's content," Lord Slytherin said.

While Bellatrix was a healer and normally worked hard to save lives, she really wanted to get back at the rat for endangering her little nephews and her other family members, like Sirius and Narcissa. And, as a Black, she was very, very good at torture.

"I'm sure she'll be glad to hear this," was the blond's answer. He really would enjoy watching the show Bellatrix would give him.

**-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-Verbuar―Blinded-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-**

All in all, the thirty-first of October in nineteen-eighty-one really was a day of great importance for many people in my life.

For Neville, it was the day he had nearly lost his parents. But, thanks to Bellatrix Lestrange they only had to stay in St Mungo's for a long while.

For his parents, it was the day they lost one month―or in Alice's case, nearly four months―with their son because they were placed in healing comas.

For Peter Pettigrew, it was the day he betrayed his friends, thus digging his own grave. While the rest of the world thought that he went missing, only Lucius, the Lestranges and Tom knew the truth.

For my parents, it was the day they lost any chance of having another child, as Greyback's beta had wounded my mother in a way where she could no longer conceive.

For Draco, it was the day when the two of us had our first sleep-over party which lasted a whole week. We both had a lot of fun that week, even though our parents scolded us when we decided to climb out of the bed we shared in the middle of the night on the second day of our sleep-over.

And for me and Tom, it was the first time we really interacted with each other.

**-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-Verbuar―Blinded-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-**

**AN: **So, how do you like it that while Bellatrix is still the reason why the Longbottoms ended up in St Mungo's, it was because she saved them instead of torturing them like in canon? Tell me what you think as I would love to hear your opinion.

Also, I've started a **poll on my profile page** where you can vote into which house Harry should be sorted.

**Next:** Harry has his Elencho Foreas and meets Tom again.


	4. Chapter 3

**Disclaimer****: **See prologue.

**Guide:** "Speech", _Thoughts, __**~letters and other written things**_, "_Parseltongue__" _

**Beta: **cuter-than-a-guinea-pig. All remaining errors are my own.

**Warnings for this chapter:** A child in discomfort/pain

**AN: **Here is the next chapter. Enjoy! And you still have about three chapters left to vote on my profile page for the house Harry should be sorted into.

* * *

**-~-~- Verbuar -~-~-**

**-~-~-by Still waters are deep-~-~-**

**-~-~- Chapter 3 -~-~-**

The thirty-first of July in 1987―the day of my seventh birthday―happened to be a Friday. Thus, while my father would have loved to schedule my Elencho Foreas for the next day, he was forced to wait until Monday, the third of August, to find out whether or not I was a Foreas and whether or not I would be the future consort of Lord Slytherin or became the Potter heir.

At that time I had been happy that I wouldn't have to get tested on the day after my birthday as I hadn't exactly been looking forward to the Elencho Foreas. It was not because my seven year old self already knew that the outcome of the test would decide the direction the rest of my life would take. No, I dreaded the test because during my birthday party on Friday I and Neville had asked Draco about his own Elencho Foreas and what the young Malfoy heir had told us hadn't sounded very nice to us.

**-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-Verbuar―Blinded-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-**

"Come on, Draco, tell us how it went," I prompted my blond best friend, who had already undertaken the test two months ago.

Over the last six years the dynamic between Draco, Neville and I had changed. While we three were still good friends, I and Draco weren't as close to Neville as we were to each other. The reason for this change wasn't that we didn't like Neville any longer, it was just that I and Draco shared the same interests: playing Quidditch and visiting zoos―both Muggle and magical ones, while Neville liked to spend his time in the greenhouse with his plants or read fairy tales. So, I and Draco spent more time together in the last years and thus had become even closer. Our mothers even said that we were inseparable.

"Please tell us about it," Neville added his own plea when Draco didn't answer my question right away. The young Longbottom was as curious and anxious as I was about his impending Elencho Foreas. He had been very lucky that the Wolfsboon Greyback had taken so many years ago had been brewed incorrectly or otherwise the werewolf would have infected both of his parents with lycanthropy.

Nervously Draco looked around the room, searching for his parents. When he saw that they weren't anywhere within hearing range, he started to whisper, "Okay, I'll tell you about it. But you must promised me that you'll tell no one―_no one_," he emphasised, "what I'm about to tell you," he finally yielded to our prompting, behaving like he would be telling us something as important and secretive as how you could successfully steel the British crown jewels in ten seconds.

After both Neville and I nodded in agreement to his condition, Draco finally started to tell us about his test after another look towards his parents. "The beginning was just like any other visit to a Healer. I just walked in and hoped on the examination table and then the Healer cast some diagnostic charms. These usual charms where followed by a spell which the Healer called the Foreas testing spell. It emitted a black glow, meaning that I wasn't a Foreas. Afterwards," here Draco paused for effect, holding up his right index finger to underline that what would come next would be very important and that we should pay attention to it as the blond wouldn't repeat it again.

"Afterwards," he continued, "the Healer asked me to take of my cloak, trousers and underwear and to lie down on my back," the blond told us as I wondered why he had to undress. After all, normally nothing more than the cloak was taken off if you went to an examination, expect maybe you had a wound on one of your legs then you also would take off the trousers, but never your underwear. So, I was very suspicious and curious about what would come next.

What the blond told us next was whispered in an even lower voice due to his embarrassment so I and and Neville had to practically put our ears to Draco's lips to hear what he said. "Then," he began as a shudder ran through his body in remembrance of the event, "then he put a finger into my botty. It was really, really uncomfortable and hurt a lot, especially since he has really big fingers," my best friend complained shuddering once more.

That statement made me and Neville become very afraid about our own tests. _Even if Draco usually is rather sensitive to pain, the fact that he was shuddering twice must mean that it really hurt,_ I thought, knowing my best friend well enough to know when he was behaving like a pansy and when he was in serious pain. And him shuddering always meant that it had really been hurting and he wasn't just exaggerating like he loved to do to get some extra sweets from his mother.

"I, of course, complained to my father why the Healer would do something as plebeian and Muggle as putting a finger in there as the spell he'd cast before had already revealed that I'm not a Foreas," the blond said in his Malfoys are fare above Muggle methods voice, once again behaving like the spoiled brat he was.

"But, he just said to shut my mouth and to stop complaining as this was how it was done," the spoiled child complained. He was still angry with his father about that episode. After all Draco was his son and thus Draco thought that his father should do everything he asked him to do.

"If you asked me, that Healer should have been fired if he isn't sure enough about his own spellwork and has to rely on Muggle methods for reassurance," my best friend said, to which I and Neville nodded our heads in agreement.

_Though there must have been a reason why Mr Malfoy, who usually did everything Draco asked him to do, for once told his beloved son to shut up and bear the pain, _I thought wondering about the unusual behaviour of the Malfoy patriarch.

Only years later, during my time at Hogwarts, would I find out the reason behind the combination of the magical and manual tests. In the old days, the young wizard's Foreas status had only been tested the manual way but after the invention of the Foreas testing spell in 1698, that method had been abandoned. But not even a century later did the wizarding world realise that one test alone wouldn't suffice.

The eye-opening case had been about two identical twins, where the Foreas testing spell surprisingly revealed that only one of them was a Foreas, something which had never happened before. Though the boys' Healer had simply dismissed it as a case of nature playing around when, even at the age of thirteen, the spell's result hadn't changed.

However, the wizarding world received a big wake-up call when at thirty-three, the non-Foreas twin was hospitalised. It turned out that while he magically wasn't able to bear children, his body still had created the opening in his anus a Foreas had and the wizard's Foreas opening had gotten infected sometime after he started to have an affair with another man.

A Healer, who some years later became the first Healer in charge of the newly founded Elencho Foreas department of St Mungo's, had suggested that the twin who the testing spell had revealed to be a Foreas should be tested with the old manual method. As it turned out, his assumption that one of the twins had only gotten the necessary body parts to bear children while the other only had the magical ability to conceive and bring a child to terms had been right.

With this new discovery he could explain why some wizards, even if according to one of the testing methods were a Foreas, hadn't been able to get pregnant as it had been the case with the Foreas labelled twin. So, from that time onwards, the Elencho Foreas always included both testing methods as one needed to be a Foreas in body and magic to get pregnant.

**-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-Verbuar―Blinded-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-**

When the Monday morning of my Elencho Foreas finally came around, my father Apparated the two of us with mixed feelings to St Mungo's. Seven years ago he argued that if I was a Foreas and would marry Lord Slytherin, he would have another child who would become the Potter heir in my stead. Now though, he knew that my mother was unable to conceive again because the wound to her lower stomach, which she had received by Greyback's beta nearly six years ago, turned out to be more severe than the healers had first thought. Thus, he now hoped and dreaded that the outcome of my Elencho Foreas would be that I was a Foreas as he would only ever get either an heir to the Potter family or be the father of Lord Slytherin's consort.

After we arrived on the second floor where the Magical Bugs and Diseases ward was located, we walked to the end of the west wing. There, the small Elencho Foreas office and examination room had been set up in 1786.

"Good morning, Mr Potter," my father was greeted by the middle aged receptionist. "If you and your son would please wait for another minute or two, Healer Scribner is still attending to the Longbottoms," he informed us and pointed towards a couch in the corner of the office.

Five minutes later Healer Scribner finally entered the office with Neville and his father Frank in tow. After all of us exchanged greetings, Healer Scribner asked, "If you would please follow me into the examination room."

After taking a look at my papers, the Healer said, "Please sit down on the examination table, Harry," reading off my name from the top of the papers.

With an encouraging nod from my father, I hoped up on the table and waited anxiously for further instructions or for the Healer to simply start casting diagnostic spells like he had done with Draco.

Without another word the Healer cast some standard diagnostic spells, checking if I was healthy and that my parents weren't abusing me―not that magical parents in general were hurting their children as family was very important in the wizarding world. But, since the children were already there, the Ministry of Magic had decided that it would be a good opportunity to check up on the children.

"A healthy little boy you have, Mr Potter," Healer Scribner commented on the spell's results. "Let's find out if he is a Foreas," was all he said before he―to my great relief―began the Elencho Foreas with the magical test I was comfortable with instead of the manual one I was afraid about.

"Ah, it seems like we have a little Foreas in the making," the Healer told my father moments later when a bright green light came to live around the area of my stomach.

I didn't care that I seemingly was a Foreas. _After all, it wouldn't make a difference, would it? _I asked myself._ After Draco's own test nothing had changed and Neville also looked the same when I met him in the office,_ I thought, not seeing what some of the adults had been so exited about when I overheard them talking about the Elencho Foreas.

_Being a Foreas won't make me a different person. It's just a way to emphasize a special ability I seemed to possess, like they started to call cousin Nymphadora a Metamorphmagus after they found out that she could change her hair colour at a whim when she was five. That didn't mean that she suddenly had become a totally different person, _I remembered the explanation uncle Sirius had given me when I asked him what a Foreas was two weeks ago. Though, he had expertly avoided to specify what the special ability of a Foreas was, only telling me that I wasn't old enough to understand it just now.

"If you would please take off your pants and underwear, Harry, we can see if the manual test also comes to the same result," Healer Scribner asked.

That was the part I was afraid of after Draco's story three days ago. _Why couldn't they just stop the testing after the spell revealed that I'm a Foreas?_ I thought in the privacy of my mind, not wanting to voice my complaint out loud as my father surely would scold me for my bad manners. After all, I had already told him that I didn't want someone to put his finger in my botty, but he had told me exactly the same thing Draco's father had told him. And while he didn't word it as harshly as Mr Malfoy, in the end, they both had meant the same thing, that we boys should shut our mouths and stop complaining as this was how it was done.

At least I had been able to talk him into taking me to Fortescue's for an extra big helping of ice cream afterwards if I would behave. So, without a word of protest, I still very hesitantly started to disrobe from the waist downwards, so that the Healer could probe my anus.

By the time I was finally finished with undressing, Healer Scribner had already put a rubber glove on his right hand and held a bottle of lube in his left.

"Please lie down on your back and then pull your legs towards your chest, Harry," he asked me in a friendly voice as he stepped towards the examination table. Putting down the bottle of lube at the end of the table, he scooped up some lube on his right index and middle finger, before he moved them towards my entrance.

I really hated to be in this exposing position. Not only because my parents had always told me that my private parts were just that, private, but also because I already knew that what would come next wouldn't be very comfortable at all.

I looked away from the celling towards my father for encouragement. But instead of the smiling face I expected which would have given me a boost of new courage, I only saw a worried expression which frightened me even more, as at that time I didn't know that my father was anxious about the outcome of the manual test after the magical one revealed me to be a Foreas in magic. It would be really irksome if the second test wouldn't confirm my Foreas status, now that he was so close to securing my engagement to Lord Slytherin, even if it meant that he lose his Potter heir.

As I started to nervously chew on my lips, Healer Scribner covered the area around my pucker hole with plentiful of lube, only circling the opening, never entering it, before he scooped up some more and then finally, slowly put his index finger into my ass.

I stopped nibbling my by now abused lips to cringe in discomfort. _Draco was right,_ I thought as I was overcome with the unfamiliar feeling of being filled to the fullest. The fact that the hand of the Healer was about two sizes bigger than my own wasn't helping either. _Why couldn't our mothers with their slender hands do it? _I repeated the same thing Draco had complained about during my birthday party after Neville had left and we were alone together as my best friend for some unknown reason didn't had wanted to talk more about his Elencho Foreas in front of Neville.

"Hold still, Harry. It will be over soon," Healer Scribner tried to encourage me, as I tried to motivate myself with the promise of the big ice cream I would soon get for lunch. "Ah, here is your prostate," he said seconds later when I felt him touching something inside of me that seemed to be very sensitive. "The Foreas opening should be just above it," he went on, twisting his finger around in my tight hole to search for the little channel that led to a small bubble. The bubble functioned as a substitution for the female uterus and would grow with the help of my magic after I successfully conceived, so that a healthy baby could develop inside of my body.

"Ahh," I cried out in pain when the Healer's big index finger tried to enter the Foreas opening, which was even tighter then my anus. Uncaring of the tears which were filling my green eyes, Healer Scribner used his left hand to push my legs back into place after I led them fall down due to the pain I'd felt seconds ago.

When I looked with pleading, watery eyes to my father, hoping that he would tell the Healer to stop hurting me, I saw that while he seems obviously concerned that I was in so much pain and would like nothing better than to relieve me of it, he was still resolve to see it through to the end. "Daddy," I whimpered painfully in a low voice as the Healer pushed in the tip of his finger into my Foreas opening to see if it was closed up and needed to be opened with an operation.

"It's okay, Harry," he told me in a soothing voice. "The Healer will be done soon and then we will go to Fortescue's like I promised you," he told me just as Healer Scribner finally started to retract his finger from my hurting ass hole.

"Congratulations, Mr Potter. Your son is a healthy Foreas," he informed my father while he was disposing the rubber glove.

_Draco had lied. It really hurts a lot more than he told me it would_, I thought sobbing. I didn't know at that time that my pain had been worse than Draco's because, opposed to me, the blond boy hadn't a tight Foreas opening so the Healer hadn't had to push his finger further.

"You can get dressed now, Harry," Healer Scribner absently told me while he was busy getting something from a cabinet.

Gingerly I sat up on the examination table, letting my legs hang down from the edge of the table. I cringed when I noticed that sitting hurt my abused ass, so I slowly lowered my body towards the ground to take the weight away from my butt. After rubbing the tears from my face, I started to redress, biting my lips in pain whenever I needed to lean down to re-tie my shoes or get my socks on.

When I was finally dressed again, Healer Scribner handed me a piece of Honeydukes finest chocolate as an apology while he gave my father a piece of paper which confirmed my Foreas status.

"Come on, Harry. Let's go to Fortescue's," my father suggested after he exchanged goodbyes with Healer Scribner.

**-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-Verbuar―Blinded-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-**

While Tom was certain that the result of my Elencho Foreas could only be that the healer would confirm that I was a Foreas, it was still nice to have the fact in writing in front of him. So, with a self-satisfied smirk Lord Slytherin took notice of the letter Healer Scribner had owled him right after my test was over.

_**~Dear Lord Slytherin,**_

_**Hereby I sent you the results of today's Elencho Foreas.**_

_**Neville Longbottom, 30.07.1980: no Foreas**_

_**Harry James Potter, 31.07.1980: Foreas**_

_**Yours faithfully,**_

_**Marc Scribner**_

_**Healer in charge of the Elencho Foreas~**_

_And Severus really believed that Longbottom was the prophesied child,_ Tom thought, amused. _Oh, how much fun I'll have when I tell him that only Harry turned out to be a Foreas. And how convenient it is that Severus doesn't have to be at Hogwarts until the twenty-fourth, so he'll have no choice but to attend Saturday's dinner which I'll hold in celebration of Harry being a Foreas,_ Lord Slytherin planned his amusement at the Potions master's expense.

_Though, I better also invite Lucius and his family to the dinner, least he will once again sulk for a week because I showed a preference for James Potter,_ Tom adjusted his plans. _Besides, James had told me that Harry and the Malfoy brat are good friends and I'm sure Harry will be happy that someone of his own age will also be there. _

_Maybe I also should invite the Longbottoms?_ Riddle contemplated. _I believe that James had mentioned that his son also often plays with their child. And if I also invite them, it will not only prevent any rumours from starting up that I only invited James and his family because his __son was a rare Foreas, but also it would make rubbing into Severus' face that he had bet on the wrong boy even sweeter_, he thought evilly.

And with a smile on his face, he started to write the invitations for the dinner he would be holding in five days, adding a sincere congratulation for their son being a Foreas to the Potter family's invitation.

**-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-Verbuar―Blinded-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-**

And that was how it was irrevocably decided on a sunny Monday morning in August what path my life would take as my Foreas status was indisputably put in writing. As a Foreas, I would become the consort of Lord Slytherin after I graduated from Hogwarts, no matter whether by then I would want to marry him or if I would even be gay.

**-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-Verbuar―Blinded-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-**

**AN: **I hope that you liked the short look into Tom's thoughts. An in deep look into Harry's thoughts of being a Foreas will come with the next chapter.

**Next: **Harry and Tom meet at the dinner party and the dark side of being a Foreas will be revealed.


	5. Chapter 4

**Disclaimer****: **See prologue.

**Guide:** "Speech", _Thoughts, __**~letters and other written things**_,_ "__Parseltongue__" _

**Beta: **cuter-than-a-guinea-pig. All remaining errors are my own.

**Warnings for this chapter:** branding a child (similar to the Dark Mark)

**AN: **A chapter which shows why I call this story/arc dark. Though, I still hope that you enjoy it anyway as it also has some fluff. And sorry for the delay real life went from merely busy to utterly horrible this month.

** at Ariana:** I won't abandon this story. I update at least once every 1-2 months, more if possible.

* * *

**-~-~- Verbuar -~-~-**

**-~-~-by Still waters are deep-~-~-**

**-~-~- Chapter 4 -~-~-**

While as a teenager I thought that society labelling a wizard as something inferior and less manly only because he had the ability to bear children was the worst thing about being a Foreas, at the age of seven the old fashioned branding custom was the thing I'd hated the most about my Foreas status.

**-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-Verbuar―Blinded-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-**

As it happened, the wizarding world was still very old fashioned. So, even if it was already the late twentieth-century, women were still legally seen as the property of their husbands, or if they were still unmarried, the property of their fathers. And even older than that non-sense was the tradition of branding your little girls and young wives in a Claiming Ceremony.

During this ceremony, the 'owner' of the female would cast a spell which would brand his family crest into the wife's or daughter's body to state his claim. If the branding did more than just burning an ugly mark into the females, like provide protection from rape, then I may have been able to overlook the pain all young girls went through between the ages of seven and nine when they were marked as their fathers' 'possession' and once again branded some years later by their husbands when the 'ownership' was transferred.

But as this wasn't the case, I really, really hated it, especially since not only girls were branded but also Foreas as in the eyes of the Wizengamot, every magical person who can bear children is nothing more than the property of their fathers or husbands. They didn't even care that, while a Foreas could bear children, their penises still functioned like any other male's and thus, they could as easily impregnate a woman as they could get knocked up themselves.

Some younger daughters from traditionalist families had foolhardily thought that they could avoid the second branding from their husbands if they married a Muggle-born or some other wizard who was against the Claiming Ceremony. But, what they had forgotten to take into consideration was that if their husbands didn't mark them too, they would legally still belong to their fathers because they only had his mark of ownership on them. Thus, while most of the Muggle-born wizards didn't want to mark their loved ones, they still did it in order to get their wives away from the influence of their old-fashioned families.

At times I was jealous of the Muggle-borns. As their fathers, as Muggles, haven't marked them when they were young there was no need for their husbands to perform the Claiming Ceremony. So, as long as they didn't marry any of the old-fashioned traditionalists, they would never get branded as the 'owner' was the one to decide whether or not he wanted to brand his 'possession'.

Though, even while my mother was a Muggle-born witch and my father wasn't a big fan of the old fashioned branding custom, she still had ended up getting the Potter crest branded just above her left breast. The reason behind the unwanted mark of ownership my mother spotted was my paternal grandfather. While he did allow my father to marry a Muggle-born, as he had seen that she was a brilliant witch, he still had insisted on the Claiming Ceremony or otherwise he wouldn't acknowledge the marriage between them.

As he didn't want to lose his inheritance, my father had in the end bowed to the demands of my grandfather and had gone against his own wishes and branded my mother. Though, at least he had been able to postpone the Claiming Ceremony to a week after the actual wedding day instead of right after the marriage ceremony so that they could at least enjoy their wedding night in peace without all the pain the branding would involve.

Even though as the best men Sirius and Severus had been invited to my mother's Claiming Ceremony, together with the families of the newly-weds, they had both declined the invitation out of respect for Lily and to show that they were against such a barbaric tradition. Thus, Severus was very surprised when he received the following letter from my father two days after the Foreas congratulation dinner at Slytherin Manor.

**Monday, 11th August 1987**

_**~Dear Severus,**_

_**hereby I invite you, as Harry James Potter's godfather, to attend my son's Claiming Ceremony on August, 16th.**_

_**With kind regards,**_

_**James Potter,**_

_**Head of the Potter House~**_

Severus didn't know what to think about this invitation. After all, while he and my father disagreed on many things, the Potions master had thought that after their agreement over Lily's own branding that they at least shared the same opinion on the Claiming Ceremony.

_Potter must have spoken about it with Riddle during last weeks dinner and our Lord must have insisted on the branding,_ he wrongly assumed as he tried to find a reason why my father would out of the blue change his mind about the Claiming Ceremony.

But even I would only learn years later that during that private talk between my father and Tom it was not my branding that had been discussed, but instead Tom simply informed my father that I would get my second lightening bolt earring at eleven instead of seven and that he will keep our engagement a secret for some more years.

_How typical for Potter, _Severus thought bitterly, before he walked into his personal Potions lab to start brewing a healing potion which would lessen the pain after the branding. _First, he can't even stand up to his own father when it came to spare Lily the pain and now, he's going to brand his own son too? What a pitiful excuse of a wizard, _was his last thought before he shut the door to his lab.

**-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-Verbuar―Blinded-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-**

**Sunday, 16th August 1987**

_Uncle Sirius was wrong,_ I bitterly thought as I was getting ready for the impending Claiming Ceremony. _He lied when he told me that nothing would change if I became a Foreas_, I thought, angrily stomping my foot on the carpeted floor of my room.

_And to think that at first I'd thought that being a Foreas was something great when Lord Slytherin had invited my family to dinner a week ago in honour of my discovered Foreas status,_ I chided myself for my nativity as I buttoned the white, sleeveless dress shirt my mother had laid out for me to wear for the ceremony.

_Maybe I should have tried to write to Lord Slytherin and asked him to help me get out of the whole Claiming Ceremony?_ I wondered, remembering how Lord Slytherin had told me that if something troubled me I could always go to him for help._ But surely our Lord has better things to do then to cancel my imminent branding, especially since I'm not the first one to receive such a mark,_ my seven year old mind reasoned.

_If all the girls can bear the pain then I certainly can do it too, _I tried to motivate myself as I buttoned the last button of my dress shirt. After a last look into the mirror to see if I looked presentable enough, I left my room having decided that, opposed to last Saturday's dinner with Tom, I didn't need my hair to look perfect for the damned ceremony.

**-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-Verbuar―Blinded-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-**

**Flashback, Saturday 8th August 1987**

"Come on, sweetheart," I heard my mother calling up the stairs for me to hurry up as we were becoming pressed for time for the dinner Lord Slytherin had invited us to.

I was so exited to finally meet Tom again. While my father spent time with our Lord nearly every day, I only saw him occasionally and from afar when he was talking to my father in our house's study or when I and mum were picking my father up from work. As far as I knew, the last time I had personally spoken with Lord Slytherin was when I was fifteen months old and couldn't say much more than "up".

So, in honour of being invited to a personal lunch with the Lord I admired, I was currently very busy to get my hair straightened out so that it wouldn't he bird's nest it so usually did. Though, I wasn't being very successful in my task of taming my wild hair, thus my mother telling me to come down already.

"I'll be right there," I yelled down the stairs as I made the finishing touches to my hair, having decided that I wouldn't get it any better even if I would spend another hour on it.

_Maybe Draco can try to tame it?_ I thought, remembering that my blond best friend had also been invited to the dinner as I walked down the stairs to my waiting parents.

"Are you exited to meet our Lord?" my father asked me while he put a strand of my black hair behind my left ear so that the lightening bolt earring would be on display.

"Yes, dad," I answered truthfully, full of enthusiasm. After all it wasn't every day that one got to meet his personal hero.

My father chuckled about my eagerness as he held out the pot of Floo powder to me.

As I was known to stumble out of the Floo, my father went to Slytherin Manor first before I would follow with my mother in tow.

"Slytherin Manor, Entrance Hall" I called out as clearly as I could with one of my front teeth missing. The tooth had fallen out two days after my Elencho Foreas. Stepping into the cold green flames, I felt how my body was flung around before it was thrown out of another fireplace halfway across the country.

I wasn't surprised when I fell down on the floor. What surprised me though was that my father was nowhere in sight. Instead I was greeted by yellow eyes staring at me from the rug in front of the fireplace.

Afraid that the angry and very venomous snake of Lord Slytherin would try to bite me, I rolled to the left. At least I now knew that I must have ended up somewhere in Slytherin Manor opposed to Merlin knows who.

"_How dare you to begrime me with sooth?!_" the owner of the yellow eyes hissed at me angrily. In my fear of the creature I didn't even register that I had understood what the snake said.

Having heard that Lord Slytherin's snake was very intelligent I tried to placate the angry reptile. _"I'm sorry,"_ I said unconsciously speaking in Parseltongue as I bowed my head in submission to the snake.

Surprised that someone else beside her master and her master's mother was able to speak in her tongue, Nagini straightened her upper body up so that her head was on the same height as my own. Staring with her yellow eyes into my fearful green ones as I thought she was about to lash out, she asked curious, _"You're a speaker, little one?"_

"_I'm sorry, but I don't speak Parseltongue." _I hissed back automatically without thinking. Only belatedly did I realise that I had even understood what the snake had said. But before I could further think about this, my thoughts were interrupted by a chuckle coming from somewhere behind me.

Turning around I was met by a rare sight. Leaning against the door frame stood non-other than a smiling Lord Slytherin, his eyes shining full of merriment.

"And who has taught you how to say 'I don't speak Parseltongue' in Parseltongue?" Lord Slytherin asked me in amusement as he calmly walked towards me.

As I only moments ago had realised that I could understand Nagini, I was still in shock about the new discovery and thus didn't answer his question. The fact that I was alone in the room with Lord Slytherin didn't help calm my nervousness either.

Tom didn't seem bothered by my lack of answer though as he knelt down next to me. _"Don't worry, Harry. For most Parselmouths, Parseltongue sounds just like English. It takes time to notice the underlying hissing noise," _he whispered into my ear, making me shiver at his sudden and unexpected closeness.

While today I had been very excited to spend some time close to my idol, I would never have thought that we would be so close and that I would have his undivided attention. I had hoped for a handshake in greeting at best before he would turn his attention back to the invited adults.

After leaning away from my ear, he continued speaking. _"But at least it saved you from being attacked by Nagini,"_ he said while ruffling my hair that I had spent thirty futile minutes to tame. But at that moment, I didn't care at all that Tom ruined all my hard work.

Looking at the mentioned snake, I was surprised to see that she was suddenly closer than before. I hadn't even notice how Nagini had moved closer towards I and Tom, curious about what he had been whispering into my ear. Though, with her master right next to me I wasn't afraid anymore. And since I didn't fear that she would charge at me any moment, I could now appreciate her beautiful green scales.

"_Beautiful,_" I said out loud, unconsciously slipping into Parseltongue once again as I had been looking at the snake.

"_Thank you, little speaker,_" Nagini answered.

"_I'm sure that Nagini would allow you to pet her,"_ Lord Slytherin said. Unlike me, he did not need to look in Nagini's direction to slip into Parseltongue. And, as if commanded, his snake moved even closer to the two of us and laid down her head in Tom's lap, so that I could easily stroke her.

Gingerly, I moved my hand towards the area right behind Nagini's head. While I was secure that Tom would prevent her from attacking me, I still didn't want to risk agitating her. _"It's __very smooth,"_ I said, surprised. With how shiny her skin was, I had wrongly assumed that it would be all slimy.

"_How about we keep your Parseltongue ability our little secret? Just between the two of us_," Tom suggested after some moments.

_My own secret with Lord Slytherin? _I didn't even need to think about it as I immediately excitedly nodded with my head in agreement and called out, "Yes." After all, at the age of seven, secrets were still one of the greatest things, only second to brooms and Quidditch. It was even more special since I would share it with Lord Slytherin.

In my excitement I didn't even register that Nagini hissed out an angry "_THREE_" while I had been calling out my joyful agreement.

"Pinky promise on it," I demanded, holding out my little finger for Tom to shake, not thinking about propriety in my current state of utter excitement and happiness.

Smiling over my childish antics, Tom obediently held out his own little finger for me to shake.

We both said the obligatory, "Pinky promise" swear while we shook fingers.

"I'm sure that your parents are already worried about where you are," Tom told me as he stood up from his kneeling position and Nagini returned to her cosy place in front of the fireplace.

"Let's go, Harry," he said, holding out his hand for me to take.

Happily, I took the offered hand, saying "_Bye, bye, Nagini,_" to the green snake in farewell while I waved to her with my right hand.

"_Goodbye, little speaker,"_ she answered just as Tom was closing the study door after us.

**-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-Verbuar―Blinded-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-**

"One looks for an intruder in his living room and finds a missing child," Tom announced our presence as we entered the Entrance Hall, where I was supposed to have turned up fifteen minutes ago.

I was so happy to have been spending some time alone with the great Lord Slytherin and to even hold his hand that I had to restrain myself from swinging our joined hands all the way to the Entrance Hall.

When my parents saw me standing beside their Lord, their worried faces relaxed immediately. In their relief, neither of the adults in the room wondered how I had been able to even enter Lord Slytherin's private living room as surely a seven year old could never break down the powerful wards placed there.

"Thank, Merlin," was all my mother said before she crushed me into her arms, relief clearly written over her face. "We thought that you've ended up Merlin knows where."

"Breath, mum" I said as she nearly cut off my air supply. Taking a step back, she asked, "Are you alright?"

"Yes, mum. Lord Slytherin was even so nice to let my pet Nagini," I told her, joyfully. I was still captivated by the snake's beauty.

The last comment caught the attention of both male Malfoys in the room. Draco loudly complained, "That's so mean. I want to pet her too."

His father, on the other hand, thought suspiciously, _How very unusual. In all my time as his first in-command, I've never seen anyone besides Lord Slytherin pet Nagini. And we're here to celebrate the outcome of Harry's Elencho Foreas, something he hadn't done for Draco's test..._

But before Lucius could think on it further, the Longbottoms finally arrived and our party moved towards the dining room, as I excitedly told Neville and Draco all about my meeting with Nagini, only leaving out the Parseltongue part.

**-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-Verbuar―Blinded-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-**

The rest of the evening was rather uneventful, except when Lord Slytherin and my father excused themselves to the study for half an hour to discuss how they would handle my and Tom's engagement.

My father was disappointed that Tom still insisted on my father's secrecy. He had hoped that now that my Foreas status was confirmed and the marriage contract was signed, Lord Slytherin would finally openly announce our engagement or at least inform the invited dinner guests about it. But Tom did not even gift me with the second lightening bolt earring, saying that it would be my gift when I was introduced into society when I was eleven.

So, least to say that my father didn't look overly happy when he came back half an hour later as he would have loved to brag about my perfect betrothal. But at least his obvious bad mood help to dispel Lucius Malfoy's suspicions.

The blond man couldn't help but wonder if they had been discussing some marriage arrangements for me, as Tom had officially congratulated me on my Foreas status before dinner started. _Surely our Lord isn't interested in the Potter boy?_ The blond wondered, having the right idea. _No, he must simply be advising James of some good matches for his son. Or maybe what he should do about his newly developed lack of an heir, _he thought, dismissing any suspicions he had about I becoming his Lord's consort as surely my father would have looked utterly happy if he had gotten me engaged to Lord Slytherin.

**-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-Verbuar―Blinded-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-**

Around ten in the evening, all the invited guests made their way into the Entrance Hall to go home as Draco and I were too tired to stay awake much longer and Neville was already sound asleep in his father's arms.

The Longbottoms were the first to depart, followed by the Malfoy family. When only my parents and I were left in the room with Lord Slytherin, Nagini found her way into the Entrance Hall.

_Are you leaving already, little speaker?_ she asked while she moved up Tom's body to rest her head on his left shoulder, staring at me.

_Yes, he is about to leave,_ Tom answered in my stead. _Do you two want to say goodbye to each other?_ he asked us.

Luckily for me, my parents had been looking at Tom when I nodded my head in answer to his question, or otherwise they would have wondered why I was reacting to something which Tom had obviously been discussing with Nagini, in a language which I should have no means to understand.

When also Nagini hissed her agreement to the suggestion, Tom addressed my parents, "Nagini wants to say goodbye to Harry. Is that alright with you?" he unnecessarily asked my parents for permission as if they could deny him such a request. But even if he hadn't been their Lord and my future husband, my parents would still have voiced their agreement, as my happy and eager face wouldn't have allowed them to say no, regardless of the fact that Nagini was a very dangerous snake, who could kill me in seconds if she wanted to.

When I reached Tom and Nagini, Lord Slytherin knelt down in front of me just like before so that I could easily reach the snake. And while I was busy petting Nagini's pretty scales, Tom moved his head so that he could speak into my ear without my parents overhearing our talk.

"_If you have any problems, you can always come to me, Harry. Always," _Tom whispered into my ear, even though the use of Parseltongue would have ensured that no one besides us and Nagini would know about his generous offer.

I just nodded in agreement, still being enchanted by Nagini's beauty.

**End Flashback**

**-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-Verbuar―Blinded-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-**

"Really James, how can you even think of marking your own flesh and blood?" I heard Sirius ask my father in disbelief after I left my room to walk down to the living room where the Claiming Ceremony would take place. Intrigued, I stopped in front of my father's study to listen in to their talk.

"I thought that after Lily you would do everything in your power to make sure that no child of yours would have to go through the pain of the branding. So, why the hell do you want to mark Harry?" he spit at my father, trying to talk some sense into him so that the whole Claiming Ceremony would be called off.

"I have my reasons," my father said firmly. Though even I could see from my place at the partly opened door that he wasn't very happy about doing it.

"Come on, Prongs. You can't lie to your best friend. Even a blind man could see that you don't really want to do it. So, name me one good reason why you're doing this shit to our Harry," my godfather growled.

"I want him to be able to marry someone of higher ranking when he is older and we both know that they, because of their position in society, can only accept spouses who were claimed by their fathers. Besides, I can't just cancel the ceremony at the last minute," my father answered, trying to stay calm while his friend got angrier by the minute.

"You know you can, James!" Sirius said with conviction. "The only ones who know about Harry's Claiming Ceremony are you, I, Lily and Snape and neither of us would tell a thing if you called it now. We would be happy about it actually.

"And if in ten years Harry happens to need your mark so that he can marry one of those higher ranking snobs then we can always perform the ritual after he finished Hogwarts and just say that he's had the mark since he was seven," Sirius argued.

"Really?" my father asked. "What if I die during a fight with one of the rogue werewolves before Harry finishes Hogwarts? I won't be able to mark him then and as I'm the last Potter there is no one else still alive who could do it in my stead. So, you see, Sirius, I have to do it now so that I won't take away Harry's opportunity to have a secure future by marrying into a high standing family. With him being a Foreas, I can't secure his place in society anymore with simply naming him my heir."

"You're talking like you've already found someone to marry Harry off to," Sirius accused my father. "And I really don't like that this someone obviously insists on branding a child. Are you sure that this is someone you want Harry to marry?" he asked, stepping forward so that his upper body was leaning over my father's desk while his right hand was formed into a claw ready to grab my father's robes in a second to shake some sense into his friend.

Obviously he was very worried for my well-being and greatly doubting that whoever my father had chosen for me would make a good husband.

I, on the other hand, was totally grossed out by the thought of having to kiss a girl anytime soon. After all, they had cooties and that was reason enough for me to stay far away.

It didn't even cross my mind at that time that they weren't referring to someone of the female sex but were talking about another male. But then, why should I have thought such a thing when the only couples I knew were hetero ones, except for Sirius and Remus but they weren't married, and neither Sirius nor my father had used anything but gender neutral words when they mentioned my future spouse.

"Harry is my son and if securing his future means that I have to mark him then so be it," my father told Sirius in a stern voice which didn't allow for any argument as he stood up from the chair and walked towards the door. In his mind he was sure that the old traditionalists would never accept me if I wasn't claimed by him, especially if I would be Lord Slytherin's consort and as such needed to be a good role model.

Not wanting to be caught eavesdropping, I quickly ran down the stairs to the living room where my mother and Severus already awaited me.

**-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-Verbuar―Blinded-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-**

Fifteen minutes later, it was finally time to start the Claiming Ceremony. My parents had already told me that the branding would hurt, so I wasn't exactly looking forward for it to start.

Even though Severus told me, while we waited for Sirius and my father to join us in the living room, that he had brewed a potion for me which would take away all the pain, taking it would have to wait until the ceremony was officially finished.

The fact that everyone in the room had either a resigned, upset, anxious, or angry look on their face wasn't improving my mood either. But, if the argument between Sirius and my father was anything to go by, there was no way out of the Claiming Ceremony even thought it was obvious that none of them wanted it to happen. So, after my mother gave me a pained smile, I resigned to my fate and did as my father had instructed me and knelt down onto a pillow which was decorated with Runes my father's ancestors had embroidered on it.

Both of my godfathers were relieved to see me kneel as they had feared that my father had chosen one of the two traditional branding places for a Foreas―on the inner thigh or on an ass check, which were both more sensitive than other body parts and would also call for a bigger mark, thus prolonging the branding process and the pain it brought.

They were even more relieved when they saw that my father was placing the tip of his wand against my right upper arm right were my shoulder ended instead of opening my dress shirt and placing it on my chest. There the mark would have been four times larger than on the place on my arm which my father had chosen.

Tapping his wand twice against the chosen place of skin, my father said in a clear but still somewhat forced voice, "**Clamare dominii***."

And as the spell started to brand the Potter family crest into my arm, I couldn't do anything more but scream in pain and cry my eyes out when I wasn't pleading for my father to stop what he was doing. But even if he wanted to, once the branding spell was cast it couldn't be stopped until the whole crest was branded into the skin.

After forty long and painful seconds, which felt like a lifetime to me, the Potter crest was finally completely etched into my skin while my face was covered in tears and snot. Hiccupping and with blurry eyes, I noticed that my father was holding out his right hand for me to kiss so that the Claiming Ceremony would be officially over and Severus could give me the potion which would take away the pain.

But I was still too shaken from the pain to lean forward and kiss the tan hand in front of me.

"Why are you still standing here?" I suddenly heard my mother's sorrowful voice ask. "Harry needs the potion!" she mumbled desperately into Severus' chest. During the branding I hadn't noticed that my mother had turned away from my screaming form on the floor and had buried her head in her best friend's chest, unable to watch her child in so much pain and not being able to do anything to help me.

Severus, who had tried his best to comfort my distraught mother, softly answered her previous question, "Harry hasn't kissed your _husband's_ hand, yet."

While the adults only heard the distaste with which the Potions master said _husband,_ Severus' calm tone helped me to think clearly long enough to remember that if I wanted the pain to end, I would have to kiss my father's hand.

When my wet and trembling lips finally touched the skin of my father's forehand, Severus let go of my mother and in three long strides was kneeling in front of me, holding out the potion bottle which would take away the lingering pain and ensure that I wouldn't develop a fever during the night.

"Drink this, Harry," he told me in his soothing voice as he placed the tip of the bottle to my lips.

Moments after I swallowed the last of the foul-tasting potion, the pain began to finally seep away, while I buried my head in Severus chest, this time crying in relief.

"It's over, Harry. It's all over," he whispered into my ear as he rubbed calming circles on my back.

Soon, Severus' voice was joined by my mother's shaken one. Both of them whispering soothing words into my ears while I distantly heard Sirius yelling at my father out on the patio, pointing every so often to my shaken form in Severus and Lily's arms. He even went so far as to say that I would have been better off if Severus had been my father.

And while one of my godfathers was screaming his throat hoarse, my other godfather wondered if he could have done more for me while he was looking into my green eyes, which were currently as sad as my mother's. With his knowledge about the prophesy, Severus was sure that Lord Slytherin would have agreed to not let me be marked at all if James had made it a term of our marriage contract―but opposed to Severus my father didn't know that Tom would consent to nearly everything to have me as his consort, so James did everything in his power to do what he believed would help secure my future at his Lord's side―even if it brought pain to both of us.

**-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-Verbuar―Blinded-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-**

And that is how I ended up being marked as the property of my father, becoming nothing more than the brood mare of my future husband in the eyes of some of the old traditionalists only because I possessed the ability to bear children.

**-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-Verbuar―Blinded-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-**

**Clamare dominii:** Latin for "Claiming of ownership" according to Google Translator.

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**AN: **I know that the whole branding a child tradition seems brutal, but I wanted to include an analogy for the Dark Mark. For your information, the tragedy arc will last about 20 more chapters.

**Next: **Draco's introduction into society and a jealous Tom.


	6. Chapter 5

**Disclaimer****: **See prologue.

**Guide:** "Speech", _Thoughts, __**~letters and other written things**_, "_Parseltongue__" _

**Beta: **cuter-than-a-guinea-pig. All remaining errors are my own.

**Warnings: **I added an Evil Dumbledore warning to the story.

**AN: **Sorry for the wait. I had another chapter for my main story to finish before working more on this chapter. And thank you all for the new reviews, alerts and favourites. They make me really happy. :)

* * *

**-~-~- Verbuar -~-~-**

**-~-~-by Still waters are deep-~-~-**

**-~-~- Chapter 5****-~-~-**

**naivety,** noun (plural naiveties):

-lack of experience, wisdom, or judgement

-innocence or unsophistication

(From: oxforddictionaries)

**-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-Verbuar****―Blinded****-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-**

Friedrich Schiller once said, "Every true genius is bound to be naïve." But for many people, naivety is just a synonym for the stupidity of fools or the innocence of children. Which makes me wonder if when one combines the old saying "Only children and fools speak the truth" with how naivety is also connected to those two groups of people, if the resulting conclusion would be that telling the truth equals doing something stupid?

I don't know. But sometimes, it feels to me that this must be the case. After all, it was the words a portrait of a young girl so naively repeated which set a scheme into motion which, in the end, drove me to where I am now, sitting under the shade of an old tree somewhere in the afterlife listening to the sounds of the nearby river flowing by while I'm telling the story of my life.

However, when I met the famous Albus Dumbledore, headmaster of Hogwarts, for the first time during Draco's introduction to society party, I had been completely unaware of the little scheme of his he had developed for the 'Greater Good' of the wizarding world. But then, what nine year old boy isn't naïve?

**-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-Verbuar****―Blinded****-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-**

**Saturday, 10th June 1989**

Today was the day on which Draco would be officially introduced to society. In the wizarding world is was tradition that boys were introduced at the age of nine while girls and Foreas had to wait until their eleventh birthday for their coming out celebration.

In theory, I shouldn't currently dress up for the party as only children who had already come out were allowed to go to such social gatherings. But Draco and I were still as close as if we really were brothers. So, we, of course, whined and pleaded with our parents that it would be unfair if I couldn't attend the big event in Draco's life. After all, the rules state that if you're a close family member of the child who is coming out at that day, you can attend the celebration, regardless whether you've already been introduced or not.

And while, like all pure-bloods, my father and Draco's father were somehow blood-related, they said that it wasn't close enough to allow the exception. Fortunately, Narcissa wasn't as close minded as our fathers because she didn't restrict the term family to only blood-relations. So, instead of using the distant blood relation between our parents, Narcissa suggested, as both Draco and I were Severus' godsons, that we were godbrothers.

"And surely a godbrother is allowed to attend the other godbrother's introduction to society party," she had told us with wink, not carrying that she just made up the term godbrother for our benefit.

While Draco and I did a happy dance, Ms. Malfoy had called Severus and told him of her plan. The Potions master would be the one to bring me to the party to underline our godbrother relationship, while my parents would meet us later. Severus had given his agreement to the plan immediately. Though, this could also have had something to do with him seeing Draco and I dancing in the background and not wanting to break our hearts by saying 'No'.

As it was tradition that the close family of the one being introduced arrived at least a day early, I had stayed in Malfoy Manor after my friend's birthday party some days ago. I would later enter the grand ballroom together with Draco, his parents, his aunt and uncles and, of course, Severus.

"Are you ready," came Draco's impatient voice from the door of the quest room I was staying in. The blond was already dressed in the finest robes of black and green―the colours of the Malfoy family.

"Come on in," I called, not wanting to keep my friend waiting in the doorway. "I'm nearly done. I just have to get the cloak fastened to my shoulders," I said in frustration. I've been trying unsuccessfully to fasten the cloak to my sleeveless dress shirt for five minutes.

"Really, Harry, will you ever be able to get ready on your own?" Draco asked as he took the robe out of my fumbling hands and with practised ease, secured the cloak to the buttons on my shoulders and then closed the clap just over where my collarbone was.

"There, all ready," he said, trying to ease out the wrinkles in the fabric I had caused in my struggle with the button.

"Thank you," I answered, grateful for his help.

Stepping in front of me, Draco looked me up and down before he praised, "You should wear green more often. It certainly suits you better than the red colour of the Potter family."

While during big social events it was tradition that one wears the colours of their family, our parents had agreed that this time I should not wear my Potter-red robes but wear one of the Malfoy family colours to further underline the statement that I'm part of their family.

And while I didn't really have a fashion sense, I still had to agree with my friend. The one time I wore red robes to a political gathering my father had taken me to, I had felt really uncomfortable wearing the loud colour. But then, the son of the Brazilian minister who had also attended the party had it even worse, as the colour of his family was a bright neon pink. I'm sure you can imagine how an eight year old boy had liked this.

I at least had the added comfort of having Nagini by my side for half of the evening which took the attention away from my red robes. Though, it had been hard sometimes to not laugh about a funny comment she made about one person or another, as I still I had to keep my Parseltongue gift hidden. Something, which the snake didn't miss to remind me of as it was the first thing she said to me that evening.

However, it was a very good feeling to share some secret smirks with Tom during dinner. Lord Slytherin had insisted that I would sit to his left, facing the Brazilian minister, saying something about making sure that Nagini wouldn't confuse my hand with meat when she smelled all the delicious food on the table. And as the snake didn't want to leave me, I had to come over to Tom so that he could keep her in check. Not that anyone could have been able to confirm what the snake had said.

"Still, I don't know why my father doesn't allow me to get the dragon tattoo I want. It's so much better than a stupid broom as an introduction present," the blond complained, looking wishfully at my Foreas mark.

Even after two years my best friend was still jealous of my mark. Two years ago, he even went so far as to beg his father on his knees to mark him too, saying that having the Malfoy crest on his arm would show how proud he was to be a Malfoy. Needless to say, Lucius Malfoy was far from amused about his son's wish, especially since Draco in the beginning had asked him nearly everyday to mark him.

Lucius was so irritated by his son's constant pleas that he had been considering to forbid Draco and I from playing with each other regularly so that his son wouldn't see my mark so often and get jealous. But fortunately for my and Draco's friendship, my godfather Sirius had witnessed one of Draco's pleading episodes before it came to that.

He knew that Draco's parents didn't want to explain to my friend what the mark on my arm really meant, at least not yet, and he agreed with them. So, he chose another way to get the blond boy to lay off. He simply, but very effectively, told Draco that a moving, coloured dragon tattoo on his arm would be so much cooler than the boring black Malfoy crest, and of course, Draco totally agreed with him. Why the 'oh so great' Lucius Malfoy hadn't thought about it, I don't know.

Though, Draco wasn't overly happy when Sirius told him a minute later that he only could get a tattoo after he was off-age. But, before Draco could go back to insisting that he would prefer the now boring Malfoy crest over nothing, my godfather said that if he got the Malfoy crest, he wouldn't be able to get the dragon.

As Draco still seemed to waver, Sirius promised him that the next time he visited he would bring him a big supply of Muggle kids's tattoos, which appeased the blond boy for the moment. And when he finally got his promised package of kids' tattoos, Draco was totally, utterly happy. Not only were those tattoos coloured but he could also have more than one at a time and what was even better in Draco's opinion, was that he could change them with his moods. One day he had a skull on his arm when we were playing pirates and the next morning he was covered in Muggle versions of dragons because he was Draco, the invincible Dragon Knight.

And while the Muggle tattoos had been able to solve the 'Draco wants to be marked' issue my branding had created, they hadn't been able to close the rift the branding had created inside my family.

On the one side, there was my father, who was the bogeyman because he insisted on the branding. And on the other side, there were my mother, my godfathers and also Severus.

Surprisingly, Severus' grudge against my father had only lasted two weeks while Sirius and Remus had needed over three months to be on somewhat friendly term with their former best friend again.

However, thinking back, it wasn't really so surprising that Severus was the first one to let the branding rest. Not only did he know who my fiancé was but he didn't have a high opinion of my father in the first place. Sirius and Remus, though, had always believed that James was the epitome of goodness. Someone who would fight tooth and nail against his son being branded.

My mother was a completely different matter. Opposed to the three males, she had forgiven my father after a month. Not only because she had noticed that their fighting made me uncomfortable, but also she still loved my father.

Besides, Lily could understand why he had done it. Even if it had been years since Greyback's attack on Halloween, the event had made it very clear that my family was one of his targets and as the werewolf was still running around it was highly possible that my father could be attacked and wouldn't be as lucky as the Longbottoms had been. So, she could understand why he marked me even though it wasn't certain whether or not my future husband would require me to be branded.

Though, I can't help but wonder if she would have forgiven him as easily if she had known that I was already engaged and they easily could have asked my fiancé if he wanted me marked or not.

I had followed my mother's example and had forgiven my father within a month of the branding too―not only because I loved him, but also because I had seen and felt during his talk with Sirius in the study that he hadn't really wanted to hurt me that day with the branding. He only had had my best interest at heart and sadly that had involved marking me to secure a good future for me.

Though I won't deny that it had been a great help that Draco had been so jealous of my mark. That my best friend thought that the mark was cool, really helped me to not see it only as something which had brought me great pain and had made the previous happy atmosphere of my home turn dark and gloomy for a month or two. But then, I never told the blond that getting the mark had hurt like hell, as even though I had been mad at my father, I still didn't want him to be seen in a bad light or as a monster.

"Come on now, Harry. I don't want to be late to my own party," Draco complained as he tugged on my arm, bringing me out of my previous thoughts and dragging me towards the grand ballroom of Malfoy Manor.

**-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-Verbuar****―Blinded****-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-**

The protocol for the party stated that the last ones to enter the ballroom were the child which was coming out together with their intimate family. Therefore, the first ones to enter the grand ballroom were Draco's godparents, Bellatrix and Severus with me in their midst. When all eyes turned on me, I was glad for both Severus' and Bellatrix's secure grip on my hands.

It was obvious to everyone that the guests were wondering why I was entering the room together with Draco's family. The murmurs got even louder when someone noticed the Potter family crest on my right arm.

While it was well-known that both Lucius' and James' son were the same age, my father had kept my Foreas status a secret. But with my ninth birthday approaching they would have found out about my Foreas status soon enough when they wouldn't have received invitations to my own introduction into society party next month. So, my father saw no reason to avoid the unavoidable any longer and decided that I should proudly display my Foreas status.

Nevertheless, regardless of my Foreas status I still shouldn't be attending the celebration, even less, enter the ballroom together with the Malfoy family. But luckily for me, the murmurs calmed down when the three of us were announced as "Draco's godmother Bellatrix Lestrange, Draco's godfather Severus Snape and Draco's godbrother Harry Potter."

I even heard one woman say to her neighbour, "I totally forgot that they're godbrothers," and had to hold back a laugh. It seemed like the Malfoys were so influential that some lower-class witches ate out of their hands. Severus must have heard the comment too, as his lips had turned up on one side, suppressing a smirk.

But not everyone was this easily influenced. Some of the higher ranking guests and the ones which weren't especially fond of the Malfoys were looking towards where Lord Slytherin was standing, waiting for their Lord to make his displeasure about my 'godbrother' status and general presence known.

To their dismay, Tom only calmly took another sip of his drink and then focused his attention back to the door through which I had just entered the ballroom, waiting for Draco and his parents to walk in.

When the heavy doors finally opened again, even the last eye finally left me as they all focused their gaze on Draco in his stunning black and green robes, standing proudly―some would call it arrogantly―between his parents.

"Our guest of honour, Draco Malfoy together with his parents Lucius and Narcissa Malfoy," the presenter announced.

When the applause of the guests had finally calmed down, Lucius discretely cast the Sonorus charm on his son, so that the voice could be heard in the whole room.

"Dear Lord Slytherin," Draco began his opening speech with a respectful bow in Tom's direction. "Dear Sirs and Madams," he continued to greet the general audience, "thank you all for attending today's ball in honour of my introduction to society. I wish you all a good evening, enjoy the music and the wine," my friend ended his short speech and Lucius cancelled the Sonorus charm

Once again the guests applauded before they went back to dancing, talking, and eating.

Only having been to one ball before, where I had been placed with the other children my age, I didn't know what to do at this ball for grown-ups. Looking around, I saw that Draco and his parents were surrounded by well wishers, so going over to them was out of the question.

On the dance floor to my right, I saw Bellatrix being expertly led around the dance floor, avoiding other not so gracious dancers by her husband which meant that I couldn't go to them for guidiance either.

Fortunately, Severus was still standing next to me and didn't hesitate to take me by the hand. Though, the act was not entirely selfless on his part for watching and guiding me was the perfect excuse for him to stay away from the main party.

"Come on, Harry. Let's find you something to drink while Bellatrix is twirled around the dance floor," my godfather suggested, taking my hand once again and guiding me towards the refreshment tables near the left wall.

As we walked across the ballroom, I noticed how some of the guests discretely, and some not so discretely, pointed in my direction and the Foreas mark.

"Ignore them," Severus whispered to me. "They're just surprised that you're a Foreas."

"I know," I answered. "My dad has already warned me that something like this would happen. But still..." I trailed off.

"But their stares still make you feel uncomfortable," the Potions master finished for me.

I nodded in agreement as we finally reached the refreshment tables. While Severus searched for a drink, he complained under his breath that the Malfoys should serve more than wines, champagne, whiskey, scotch and alcoholic cocktails, especially if underage children were also attending the ball. Severus was so focused on finding something suitable for me to drink that he didn't notice the sudden commotion around him as the guests hurried away from the refreshment tables.

Just as he finally found something which really was orange juice and not a cocktail that looked like cherry juice, the reason behind the commotion greeted me. "_Hello, little speaker,_" Nagini hissed to me right.

Before I could greet the snake back, an elderly woman in a horrible flower dress commented to her friend, "It seems like our Lord has finally seen fit to punish the Potter brat for his impertinence."

She was obviously assuming that Tom had sent his poisonous snake after me to kill me―or at least severely hurt me for attending Draco's ball. Really, as if someone like Lord Slytherin would murder a child out in the open for everyone to see.

"Now, now, Agatha," a kind grandfatherly voice chastised the woman. "Surely you don't believe that a child should be killed only because he wanted to attend his best friend's special day," the speaker added.

Turning around, I was met with the sight of an old man with a long white beard, wearing neon green robes which were decorated with sparkling lemon drops. Only one wizard would wear something like this: Albus Dumbledore, headmaster of Hogwarts.

"No, Albus, of course not," the woman meekly responded. "You must have misheard what I said because of the lovely music from the orchestra. I just told Bertha that it is very gracious of our Lord to reward the Potter child for his determination to find a way to attend this ball by sending over his charming snake," she rephrased her previous words to not be seen as a champion for child murder. Young children like him seem to be very fascinated with animals of all kinds," she added and as to prove her point she pointed with her gloved hand in my direction.

When Dumbledore turned around he was met by a unique sight. Whilst the two one-hundred-plus-year olds had been busy talking, Nagini had climbed up my body and was now comfortably wrapped around my torso, her head with the lethal fangs was resting right next to my cervical artery.

Whereas Dumbledore's blue eyes were twinkling at the sight of me, Agatha and her friend took a step away, their fear of Nagini obvious in their eyes.

"It seems like young Harry gets along splendid with her," the headmaster commented.

While Dumbledore's demanding gaze gave me the feeling that I was supposed to react to his comment, I still felt that it wasn't my place to add something to an adults conversation. For the second time on that evening Severus came to my rescue.

"Lord Slytherin told me that Nagini has a special fondness for Harry," he commented to the pair standing in front of us. Seeing the masochistic glint appear in Agatha's eyes at the word 'special', he saw the need to elaborate, "During the dinner with the Brazilian minister, she was curled around him for half of the night, not wanting to leave my godson."

"But, Professor Snape, if I'm not mistaken, you were at Hogwarts during that particular dinner," Agatha pointed out, wanting to discredit Severus, totally ignoring the first part of Severus statement where he said that it was what Tom had told him.

"I was," he therefore admitted. "But," he continued, "I had a meeting with our Lord on the following Sunday where he himself briefed me about Harry and Nagini's interaction during the dinner. So, I dare say that I'm even more well informed about the ongoings between them then the actual dinner guests as Lord Slytherin translated some of his snakes comments to me," he mentioned the source of his knowledge once more.

Not knowing how to respond, Agatha and her friend Bertha turned around and then embarrassedly walked towards the opposite end of the ballroom.

"And, Harry, are you already excited about attending Hogwarts in two years?" Dumbledore asked kindly.

"A bit," I answered. Opposed to Draco, I was not overly anxious to finally attend Hogwarts. "At least I'll be able to see Severus more often," I added lamely.

"With the daring you've shown to attend this party, I'm sure you will be in Gryffindor," the headmaster surmised, wanting to win me over for his former house.

"I would say that Harry's endeavours should be described as cunning and resourceful rather than daring. So, he is more likely to be a candidate for Slytherin, than Gryffindor," Tom commented.

"Ah, Tom, how nice of you to join us," Dumbledore greeted. Only he would dare to address Lord Slytherin by his given name.

Tom decided to ignore the headmaster and turned his back to the old man. "_Has the old man bothered you?"_ he asked both me and Nagini, or at least I thought that he was asking both of us.

"_Not __**yet**__,_" Nagini answered. "_His robes, though, are a completely other matter_," she added.

Tom chuckled in reply before he voiced his agreement, _"Yes, his robes certainly leave something to desire. But, at least he doesn't also wear Mrs Longbottom's stuffed vulture hat."_

I had to suppress a laugh at the image of the headmaster wearing Neville's grandmother's favourite hat, especially together with the robes. Though, when Nagini added, _"No, that hat would be far better suited for Severus,"_ I couldn't do anything else but to break out in hysterical laughter.

"What is so amusing, dear boy?" Dumbledore asked, very, very curious about the source of my amusement.

"Nothing," I somehow gasped out between fits of laughter, luckily not slipping into Parseltongue.

Having a feeling that the headmaster would want to hear a satisfying explanation, I tried to come up with a good cover story, as explaining that Nagini made a joke was out of the question.

By the time I'd calmed down again, I had a believable excuse ready. "It was nothing, really," I said. "Nagini's tongue had just tickled a sensitive spot on my neck."

"_Good thinking, Harry,"_ Tom praised me while Severus and Dumbledore probably assumed that he was reprimanding Nagini for tickling me. I just smiled, happy about being praised by my idol.

"Maybe you should take your familiar off of Harry," Dumbledore suggested in a friendly voice.

"No," I immediately shot out. While Nagini was heavy, her presence still gave me a feeling of protection and comfort. Besides, if Nagini stayed with me, I would have an excuse to interact more with Tom during the remainder of the ball. _Maybe I could even sit next to him again?_ I wondered.

"But, my dear boy, Nagini is a highly poisonous constrictor. Surely you understand that having her around your neck is very dangerous," the headmaster said, trying to separate me from my serpent friend.

"No, she would never harm me," I defended her immediately as Tom and Severus smirked at my stubbornness. Or maybe at the fact that a nine-year old was telling off the great Albus Dumbledore.

"When I go to Hogwarts, I'll bring a snake as a pet," I added, full of resolve.

"I'm sorry, Harry, but Hogwarts' rules only allow the students to bring either a cat, a frog or an owl."

"Then I won't go to Hogwarts," I said, pouting.

Dumbledore, who feared that I would ask my parents to send me to Durmstrang where I would be out of his reach of influence then played one of his trump cards. "Ah, Harry, if you go to Hogwarts, you can see Severus every day."

As much as I loved Severus, I had grown up with only seeing him during the holidays, as well as about one weekend a month while school was in session. This was enough to satisfy my need to see my godfather however, so being able to see Severus every day wasn't as exciting as Dumbledore had hoped it to be. Thus, I stubbornly continued petting Nagini, not wavering an inch.

"And your friend Draco will go to Hogwarts too," he added when he noticed that mentioning his Potions professor didn't have the desired effect.

Severus, who had silently watched as the headmaster tried to bribe me with his presence in the castle, thought that enough was enough. "Actually, Headmaster," he began, "Lucius is considering Durmstrang for Draco. I'm sure if Harry is going to Durmstrang, Draco would go with him."

Severus didn't even blink when Dumbledore gave him a look of betrayal.

"Don't worry, Harry. You can bring a snake with you no matter what school you'll be attending," Tom changed the topic before the headmaster could think about casting a wandless and silent killing course at Severus.

"But the rules..." Dumbledore began.

"As a founder's heir, I can make exceptions to them," Tom calmly interrupted him.

"Besides," Severus added, "I remember that Percy Weasley brought a rat as a pet during his first year, _Headmaster._"

Realising that further arguing would only lead to his defeat, or even worse, to me really going to Durmstrang, he wisely backed down but not without having the last word.

"Ah, yes. But rats aren't as dangerous as snakes, are they?" he asked rhetorically. "After all, they can't kill the students by strangling them to death or by poisoning them."

"Don't worry," Tom said. "I'll make sure to pick out a well-behaved snake for Harry."

"You'll get me a snake?" I excitedly asked, unaware that all the adults were aware that _'a snake that disliked Dumbledore_' was implied as they knew that Dumbledore and Tom hated and distrusted each other.

"Yes," Tom answered my question with a smile. "Though, if Nagini continues to cling to you, I fear that I'll have to part with her to let her go to Hogwarts with you"

"Really? You would let her go with me?" I asked, even more excited and enthusiastic than before, totally forgetting about the other two wizards listening to our conversation.

"Of course," Tom simply answered, petting my head.

Dumbledore wisely chose to not say anything about how dangerous Nagini was. I would bet that he already feared that out of all the different snake species in existence, Tom would chose the only one which was both a constrictor and a viper for me, especially as his own snake was of the same species.

The headmaster was saved by finding an excuse to leave us to come up with a new strategy by the announcement that dinner would be served now and that everyone should take their seat.

"It's a good thing that I already suspected that Nagini would cling to you and asked that we be seated next to each other," Tom said to lighten the mood.

"_Come on, Nagini. I'll carry you over to the table. When we're there, you can coil around Harry again,_" Tom said, holding out his arm for Nagini, as she was too heavy for me to walk across the ballroom to the dining room with her body coiled around me.

When Nagini was settled around her master, Tom took my hand and led me towards our seats.

**-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-Verbuar****―Blinded****-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-**

The tables in the dining room were arranged in a U-shape with Draco, flanked by his parents, sitting in the middle of the head table. Next to Narcissa sat her sister Bellatrix with her husband, Rodolphus. On Lucius right was Severus, with me sitting next to my godfather.

And while Tom wasn't part of Draco's family and therefore shouldn't be sitting at the head table, he was still their Lord and deserved a seat at the main table. Though, Lucius had originally chosen the seat right next to himself for Lord Slytherin, he had given in to his Lord's demand and seated him right next to me.

I was so distracted by Nagini's constant complains that it was a waste of food to skin and cook a rabbit instead of swallowing it whole, that I didn't notice that I was the main dinner topic at the two long side tables. Not so surprisingly, the revelation that I was a Foreas coupled with the fact that Tom, not only was seated next to me, but also led me to the table, made the guests wonder if the two of us were engaged. After all, Lord Slytherin was still single...

At the places where some people who also attended the Brazilian's minister party sat, the rumours were calmed down rather quickly as they explained that their Lord was only sitting next to me because Nagini liked me.

Other guests though did look back and forth between my parents and their Lord, trying to read anything from their facial expressions. While Tom's face didn't give away anything, my father's surprised expression let them assume that I most likely wasn't engaged to Lord Slytheirn. What they didn't know though, was that my father was surprised because, with the request to keep our engagement a secret, he didn't think that Tom would so publicly and openly give attention to me, even if he used Nagini as a pretext.

The ones who sat nearer to the head table even tried to make out if I was wearing the traditional snake earrings all fiancés of Lord Slytherin wore. However, as my hair was covering my ears, they couldn't see the lightning bolt earring. Though that changed after the dinner was over and Draco had led me to the dance floor.

While I really didn't want to dance the first dance with everyone watching me, Draco had pleaded with me until I finally gave in. Not that it had taken me long to surrender. My conscience would have plagued me if I had let Draco dance with either his mother or his aunt, who both were tall women. Draco dancing with them would have looked ridiculous because of the height difference. So, I was the only one of his possible dance partners with whom he could gracefully dance.

And in the end, dancing wasn't too bad as Draco was a very good leader and I simply had to follow his movements. As the song neared its end, I was even smiling happily at the blond, my head nearly resting on my friend's shoulder.

Of course, the people couldn't help themselves but to tattle once more about my potential fiancé candidates, only that this time it was Draco who was speculated as my future husband as my friend waltzed my around the room. At least this time their assumption wasn't too far-fetched as it wasn't unusual for males to share their first official dance with their fiancé.

Though, they soon went back to assuming that Lord Slytherin would be the one to marry me because the first thing Tom did when Draco brought me back over to him and Nagini after the dance, was to boldly sweep back my hair behind my ear to display my lightning bolt earring. And even if it wasn't the traditional snake, what other reason should he have to display the earring but to state his claim on me?

Even Nagini noticed Tom's jealous behaviour as she boldly asked, _"Jealous much, Tom?"_

"_No, I just like the earring,"_ he answered, leaving me to wonder what Nagini thought he was jealous about. I didn't dare to ask either of them though.

**-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-Verbuar****―Blinded****-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-**

And that's how the people started to wonder if their Lord had finally found himself a fiancé and how I personally met the great Albus Dumbledore for the first time in all his sparkling and twinkling glory. And while I was not as naïve as Draco in regards to the meaning of my mark, I still was too young and naïve to see behind the scheme Dumbledore was already plotting. But fortunately, both Tom and Severus were already suspicious of the headmaster.

**-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-Verbuar****―Blinded****-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-**

**AN:** The poll into which house Harry should be sorted into will close with the update of the next chapter. So, if you haven't or don't want Harry to end up in Slytherin or Ravenclaw, go to my profile and help Dumbledore to get Harry into Gryffindor. ;)

Also, Harry should be old enough to be in a relationship with Tom in about 4 chapters.


	7. Chapter 6

**Disclaimer****: **See prologue. Also, no copyright or trademark infringement is intended with the quoting of the Hogwarts letter in this chapter.

**Guide:** "Speech", _Thoughts, __**~letters and other written things**___, "_Parseltongue__" _

**Beta: **cuter-than-a-guinea-pig. All remaining errors are my own.

**AN: **One of my reviewers asked when I would reveal the second part of the prophesy. The answer is that it will be revealed with the start of the HEA arc, so in about 15-20 chapters.

* * *

**-~-~- Verbuar -~-~-**

**-~-~-by Still waters are deep-~-~-**

**-~-~- Chapter 6 -~-~-**

Eleven is a very important age for a magical child. It is the age at which they start to attend Hogwarts or one of the other magic schools in Europe. The eleventh birthday is even more special for witches and Foreas as they not only receive their Hogwarts' letter but also, finally have their introduction to society party.

I couldn't wait for my own eleventh birthday to come with how much Draco praised all the social gatherings he had attended in the last two years. Dancing, eating lots of desserts and, even better, staying up well past his bedtime.

And while I had a lot of fun during my introduction to society party, it unfortunately didn't go as planned as an attack by Greyback and his pack of rogue werewolves once again disrupted a party my parents were hosting. At least this time they didn't attack the party itself.

**-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-Verbuar―Blinded-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-**

It was fortunate that the only part of the _Prophet_ I was interested in was the page with the Quidditch news. So, I hadn't gotten wind of all the speculations about my revealed Foreas status and my possible fiancés that were printed the week following Draco's introduction to society party. So, I still didn't even suspect that my fiancée wasn't even of the female gender like I'd assumed.

However, Tom had decided that at eleven I was finally old enough to learn about our engagement. So, a week before my birthday, he asked my father to stay behind after a meeting to plan the reveal.

**Thursday, 25th July 1991**

"With Harry's birthday approaching, I'm sure you can imagine that what I want to talk about concerns your son," Lord Slytherin said to my father.

"I assume that it is about your engagement?" James answered.

"Yes, among other things. I believe that Harry has already told you that I promised him that I would pick out a snake for him when he starts Hogwarts?" Tom asked.

When my father nodded in agreement, as I had recently bragged about it during breakfast, Tom continued, "Good. I would like to take him to Diagon Alley with me on the sixth of August to buy the snake. I could shop for his Hogwarts things too then, if this is agreeable with you?"

"Of course, my Lord," James answered. After all how could he deny his Lord such a simple request? _Besides, Harry would surely love to spend some time with Lord Slytherin, _he argued.

"Good," Tom said again, folding his hands and letting his chin rest on them. "With this solved, we only need to discuss the announcement of my and Harry's betrothal.

"I would like to tell Harry about our engagement myself on his birthday next week when I present him with the second earring," Tom stated, leaving no room for protest.

Not only was my father relieved to hear that I would finally know about the engagement, but also that he wouldn't be the one to explain it to me. Besides, he thought that the gifting of the earring was the perfect opportunity to explain the situation to me. "That would be perfect," he commented.

"As for the public announcement, I believe that Harry and I sharing his first dance should be enough to make my claim known. We can give an official statement the next day if it becomes necessary," Tom said.

My father hummed in agreement, before he asked, "Anything else you wanted to talk about?"

"No, that was all," Lord Slytherin dismissed him.

**-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-Verbuar―Blinded-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-**

**Wednesday, 31st July 1991**

It was finally the day of my birthday. My eleventh birthday. So, it wasn't surprising that I was up at dawn. And while my mother was able to be amused about I waking up the whole house at shortly after five, Draco wasn't really in the mood to get out of bed. In the end, he humoured me though, but this could also have something to do with me threatening to empty a water bucket over his head if he didn't get up. Not that I would really have done it as it was my bed he had slept in.

"Why again did I agree to sleep over at your house instead of coming over at a reasonable hour?" Draco asked me when he finally entered the kitchen at half past five.

"Because you wanted to be the first to wish me a 'happy birthday'. Which you didn't by the way; mum beat you to it. Except, of course, 'Go away and let me sleep' nowadays means 'happy birthday'?" I asked, teasing my friend about not being a morning person.

Draco just groaned in reply as he took his seat at the kitchen table, sweetening his tea to his liking.

"Oh, come on, Draco. It isn't like you didn't wake me up at four last month when it was your birthday. At least the sun is already up," I said, reminding my friend that, when he had woken me up on his birthday, it had taken forty minutes before the sun decided to show herself.

"Someone is very hyper today, isn't he?" my dad asked rhetorically when he entered the kitchen.

"Not as hyper as uncle Sirius on Christmas morning, though," I answered. Really, my godfather could be worse than a five year old on a sugar rush when he was about to get some presents.

"That's true," James answered. "He and Remus should be over soon," he added as he took a scoop of the scrambled eggs from the pan my mother had just placed on the table.

Half an hour later, just as we finished eating breakfast, a black dog raced into the kitchen, hoping into my lap and licking my face with his wet tongue.

"Sirius," Remus called out in a scolding voice. "Can't you behave for a change?" the werewolf asked as he entered the kitchen.

In answer, the dog let out a playful bark, obviously saying, "Why should I?"

Before the situation could escalate though, a tawny owl entered the room through the window my mother had previously opened in anticipation of the mail delivery.

"Let me get my camera out first," the now human again Sirius said before I could open my Hogwarts acceptance letter. "We cannot _not _capture this moment," he said as he rummaged in his robe pockets.

"Okay, I'm ready," he finally gave his okay a minute later.

And even though Draco had already read his own letter and knew what it said, he still moved closer towards me, our shoulders brushing against each other. And as the adults seemed to be as curious as Draco about what the letter said, I read it out loud.

_**~Dear Mr Potter, **_

_**We are pleased to inform you that you have been accepted at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Please find enclosed a list of all necessary books and equipment.**_

_**Term begins on 1 September. We await your owl by no later than 31 July.**_

_**Yours sincerely,**_

_**Minerva McGonagall ~**_

"Oh, our little Harry, finally growing up and starting Hogwarts," Sirius said with teary eyes.

"At least _Harry_ is growing up," my mother commented, clearly referring to Sirius childish and sometimes bipolar behaviour, which my godfather claimed was his special form of the Black insanity.

"To quote **James Barrie***, 'If growing up means it would be beneath my dignity to climb a tree, I'll never grow up, never grow up, never grow up!'" my godfather chanted the last part enthusiastically in answer to my mother's jibe.

"More like barking up at a cat in a tree," Severus said dryly, having obviously overheard Sirius last sentence.

The animagus just huffed in answer while Severus walked over towards me and wished me a happy birthday.

**-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-Verbuar―Blinded-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-**

Three hours later Draco, Sirius and I were playing a game of Exploding Snap in the living room when the doorbell rang. With it being my birthday, I didn't hesitate to race towards the door to open it. However, my father still reached the door long before me as he had been busy decorating the hallway with balloons for the party in the afternoon.

"Good morning, my Lord," I heard him greet which could only be Lord Slytherin.

"Good morning, James. I hope that I'm not too early?" Tom asked, worrying that I may still be sleeping at nine o'clock.

"Oh, no. Harry had woken us all up at five. So, you're actually rather late," my father joked just as I reached the door.

"Good morning, Lord Slytherin," I happily greeted Tom.

"Good morning, Harry, and happy birthday!" he answered.

"Thank you. Where's Nagini?" I asked him, being a bit sad to not see his snake with him.

"She was still on a hunting trip when I left the manor," he informed me as we entered the house.

"Why don't you show Lord Slytherin your room?" my father suggested, knowing that Tom would want to talk in private with me and not have Draco or Sirius listening in on our talk.

"Okay, dad," I said, not really understanding why he wanted me to do this, but nevertheless, I showed Lord Slytherin the way to my room.

When we entered my room, Tom couldn't help but to look around, not that there was much to see though. Compared to Draco's gigantic room, my bedroom was rather small. Besides some shelves with books and my closet, a king size bed and a writing desk with a swivel chair were the only other pieces of furniture in it.

"I see you still have the toy I gave you as a baby," Tom said with a smile when he saw the big black cuddly toy dog sitting on the floor to the left of my window.

"Ehm...yes," I answered, tousling my hair in embarrassment. While I really loved the big toy as it reminded me of my godfather and also because Tom was the one who gave it to me, most people found it rather childish if an eleven year old still had a little kid's toy. I tried to justify myself by adding, "Draco still has the cuddly toy dragon you gave him, too," pointing at said toy laying on the side of my bed where Draco had slept.

"You don't have to embarrassed about it, Harry," Tom said to me, giving Draco's cuddly toy a look I couldn't discern. If Nagini had been there, she would have said something along the lines of '_Are we now jealous of a toy, Tom? Or are you angry that the toy shows that another shared Harry's bed?_' So, it was a good thing for Tom that he didn't bring her with him.

"I rather like the thought that you kept something I gave you even though some people would say that you're too old for cuddly toys," Tom added as we sat down on my bed.

In bashfulness I moved my hair behind my left ear, baring the lightning bolt earring.

"I really like your earring," he told me as he caressed the mentioned jewellery.

"Thank you, my Lord," I answered, blushing and not knowing just yet that he liked the earring so much because it marked me as his.

"Do you know what the earring symbolises?" Tom asked me.

"No," I answered with a shake of my head. "I only know that I have had it since birth and that it was given to me by a family member, though my father never said which one. I can't even take it off, not that I want to as I really love it," I rambled.

Tom chuckled once before he explained, "In my family it is a tradition that we give our intended a pair of earrings as a symbol for our betrothal. Usually they are a pair of silver snakes but sometimes they also have other forms."

"That is a wonderful gesture," I said, loving the idea that someone would use something like my beloved earring as a symbol of love, just like my mother proudly wore the stag pendant my father gave her for their engagement.

"Yes, it is," he answered, taking out a small blue jewellery box from one of his robe pockets. "For your birthday," he said as he handed over the box.

Gingerly, I opened the box and peered inside.

"You're the one who gave me the earring?" I asked when I saw that the jewellery box contained an earring which was an exact copy of my lightning bolt.

"Yes," he answered, making a gesture with his head that suggested that he was waiting for me to come to another conclusion.

I didn't need long to connect the dots between the earring in my hand and Tom's previous comment about his family tradition. "Does this mean that we're engaged?"

"Yes, Harry, we are. We will marry after you graduate from Hogwarts," he said, anxiously waiting for my reaction to the news—be it positive or negative.

"This means that I won't have to marry a girl, yes?" I asked, speaking slowly, still comprehending the new revelation, but at the same time wanting Tom to clarify his previous statement.

"Yes, you won't," Tom answered calmly, surprised by my question. "Not another male either," he added believing that this would have been my next question.

"Thank Merlin, I won't have to kiss any girls," was my relieved replied. "I had been worried about it ever since I overheard my father argue with Sirius about my future spouse."

"You certainly don't have to worry about that," Tom said, amused by my fear of female lips. He was glad that I seemed to take the news about our engagement rather well and hadn't started to scream at him for not telling me sooner about our engagement or run out of the room because I didn't want to marry him or something else along those lines.

After a pause, Tom asked, "So you are okay that you will marry me once you finish Hogwarts?" He wanted to be sure that I was really comfortable with the idea.

"I knew that I would have to marry someone since the day I was marked," I told him. "I'm just really happy right now that it won't be some random girl I don't even know or like," I truthfully admitted. "So yes, I really don't have a problem with marrying you," I added with a small smile.

While Tom was glad to hear this, the first part still bothered him. After all, I was only glad that he wasn't a random girl and not that it was him in particular who I would marry.

But as I was unaware of his thoughts, I asked, "Will you dance the first dance with me on Saturday? My parents told me that a child dances its opening dance either with a family member or with its future spouse. And when I told them that I want to dance it with Draco, they said that I couldn't. So, I can only assume that they said no because they already knew that I would be dancing with you?" I asked.

"Yes, we will be dancing together. But first, let me put in the second earring," Lord Slytherin suggested and I freely offered the box with the earring to him.

Tom carefully took out the lightning bolt and swept my hair out of the way.

"Thank you, my Lord," I said after he had put the earring in the previously empty piercing I had gotten together with the one in my left ear.

"You can call me Tom in private," he said, not liking that in such an intimate moment I addressed him by his title.

"Okay, Tom," I agreed with a happy smile.

Smiling back at me, Tom said, "Your father and I want to keep our engagement a secret for a while longer, so you cannot tell anyone about it before our dance on Saturday."

"Okay," I easily agreed to the request. "Anything else?" I asked.

"If you want to, you can tell Draco and the rest of your family that you got the earrings from me. Knowing them, they will figure out what they mean, just like you did," he praised me.

"And before you ask, I haven't forgotten my promise that I would pick out a snake for you," Tom said. "I'll take you to Diagon Alley next Tuesday to buy him or her."

"Will you bring Nagini with you then?" I asked, already missing the snake I hadn't seen in three months.

"Of course. It wouldn't be good if the two of them wouldn't get along, would it?" he asked.

"Yeah," I agreed, happily throwing up my arms into the air. I really loved Nagini and was more than excited to see her again.

"I'll see you on Saturday," Tom said with a last ruffle to my hair before he got up from the bed.

"Won't you stay for cake and the party?" I asked him, wanting him to celebrate with me.

"I would love to, Harry," he began and just as I feared added, "but as Lord Slytherin, I have obligations to fulfil which can't wait for another day. I'm sorry," he said as he left through the door.

When the door closed after him, I let myself fall down on the big bed. _Engaged to Lord __Slytherin_, I thought with a sigh_. _

_No, Tom_, I corrected immediately.

I really didn't know what I should think about this new revelation. While I wasn't angry or mad about it, I couldn't say that I was overly excited about it either. But then, I had only just turned eleven and marriage wasn't something I had been thinking about.

_Could I imagine eating dinner and breakfast with Tom every day?_ I asked myself. _Did I want to share secret jokes with Tom and Nagini during some political function or another and live together with them at Slytherin Manor? Would I find dancing in Tom's arms as funny as dancing with Draco had been two years ago?_

The answer to all of those question was a clear yes. So, maybe I should just enjoy my birthday party instead of working myself up over something which I clearly didn't mind at all and should just let it all work itself out on its own when the time comes. It wasn't like I could change it anyway.

Having made my mind up, I got up from the bed and joined Sirius and Draco in the living room, showing off my new earring and just enjoying the rest of the day, celebrating with my friends and family.

Though, I can't deny that when I was lying in my bed later that night, with Draco already fast asleep next to me, one thought crossed my mind. If Tom was my fiancé, had he been the one to insist on my marking four years ago like Sirius had believed? Did it mean that if I had gone to Tom for help and asked him to talk my father out of branding me that he wouldn't have intervened at all?

_No, I can't think like that, _I told myself. After all, hadn't Tom said that he liked my lightning bolt earrings? So, maybe he would have been satisfied with the earrings alone and could have lived without me being marked, especially since it was my father's mark and not his.

With that justification I finally closed my eyes, joining Draco in the land of Morpheus.

**-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-Verbuar―Blinded-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-**

**Saturday, 3rd August 1991**

To say I was nervous would be an understatement. While I already got an idea how tonight would progress from Draco's introduction to society party, I would be the one in the spotlight tonight. And I really hated to be the centre of attention.

What made me even more nervous was that I would not only dance my first dance with Lord Slytherin, but at the same time, also announce our engagement. I didn't know how the people would react to the news.

Would they be as critical and cruel as Agatha had been two years ago? Or would they welcome the news with open arms, happy that their Lord finally wanted to settle down?

I was especially worried about how aunt Bella would react. About a year ago she had told me that she'd wanted to marry Tom but her advances had been dismissed by him. Would she be angry with me because I got the man she had wanted to marry?

What made it even worse was that the reason why aunt Bellatrix didn't have children of her own was due to an illness of her husband. If she had married Tom, she would have been able to care for her own kids instead of having to make do with spoiling and coddling Draco and I.

Thus, I was glad when Draco entered my room at Malfoy Manor, providing a distraction to my anxious thoughts. Lucius Malfoy had offered my father the use of the Malfoy's ballroom for my introduction to society party and he had accepted.

"The Potter-red really doesn't suit you," Draco said matter-of-factly. "It's a shame that you can't wear the Malfoys' black and green again," he said with a sigh.

We both knew that I wouldn't be able to wear Draco's family colours. What my best friend didn't know though, was that I had already asked my parents if I couldn't wear robes in the Slytherin colours green and silver. Obviously, they said no. Their explanation was interesting though.

My mother, who finally knew about my engagement and had scolded my dad for not telling her sooner about it, said that with the party being held at Malfoy Manor the people could easily assume that I and Draco were engaged as the Malfoy green was nearly identically with the Slytherin house colour.

My father agreed with her, adding that it was important that I didn't say anything about the engagement before the opening dance as they wanted to announce the betrothal with the dance and not any other way.

So, I was forced to wear red robes. But at least this time I didn't need Draco's help to secure the cloak to my shoulders.

"Are you nervous?" Draco asked me as he examined my outfit, trying to find a wrinkle.

"Yes," I answered truthfully. "Though I don't know if I'm more afraid of dancing with Lord Slytherin or giving my speech."

"You don't have to be afraid of dancing," Draco told me. "Just follow Lord Slytherin's lead and you will be alright," my friend advised. "It worked when you danced with me, didn't it?" he added.

"Yes," I answered, feeling less nervous about the dance.

"And if the speech goes wrong, you can always blame Nagini. Knowing you, the snake will coil around you as soon as she sees you," the blond added, his long-standing jealousy obvious.

"Of course, it will be her fault if I stammer or say 'horrored' instead of 'honoured' that they could attend the party," I joked.

"You do know that horrored isn't even a verb," Draco commented. "Besides, I've listened to you practising the speech ten times so, stop worrying!" he commanded.

"You know, you could've always decided to not listen to it," I said with a laugh, my nerves much calmer and muscles less tense now.

**-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-Verbuar―Blinded-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-**

Two hours later Draco had been proven correct. I had successfully given my short speech, with Tom having to forcefully remove Nagini from my person so that she couldn't tickle or distract me during the speech. But my blond friend wouldn't be proved correct about the dancing part, at least not completely, as something very unexpected happened during the dinner.

While we were all enjoying the main course, an Auror approached Tom. I could clearly see how both my father's and Tom's face fell as they listened to what the Auror had to say. The only words I did catch were "Greyback" and "attack on Hogsmead", but they were enough to get an idea what the emergency was about.

"I'm sorry, James," Tom said loud enough for me to hear. "But I really have to go. Taking Lucius with me should be enough, so enjoy your son's party."

"I understand, my Lord. The lives of the people in Hogsmead are more important than a silly dance," my father answered.

"Take care of Nagini, Harry," Tom said to me in passing as he walked passed me, my mother, Severus, and Draco to reach Lucius' place at the end of the main table.

While I was sadden that Tom wouldn't be able to dance with me, I could also understand that Tom really hadn't wanted to leave me. Now though, I was missing a dance partner, so I asked my dad, "Should I ask Draco to step in for the first dance?"

"That would be the best alternative. Make it inconspicuously though," he whispered back, as about ten of the off-duty Auror guests also left because they wanted to help their comrades. The Lestranges brothers were among them seeing as they were part of the elite Auror unit.

When I had finished the main course and saw that Draco was finished with his meal too, I got up from the table and walked towards the bathrooms, hoping that Draco had noticed my sign to follow me. But I shouldn't have worried, as half a minute later my friend joined me in the bathroom.

"What is wrong?" he asked me.

"As far as I've gathered from the snippets I've caught, Greyback attacked Hogsmead," I said.

"That's horrible," was all Draco could say.

"It is. It really angers me that he has to attack when my parents are hosting a party. First when we were young he crashed the Halloween party and now my introduction to society party," I said, resting my arms on the sink in front of me.

"But you didn't ask me to follow you to just tell me this," Draco said.

"Yeah," I answered. "I wanted to ask if you would mind pitching in for the first dance? As you've noticed he can't dance with me anymore," I said, nervously playing with the hem of my dress shirt.

"Of course I wouldn't mind dancing with you, Harry," my friend immediately answered. "Even though your red robes will clash horribly with my green ones," he added, making me laugh and relax again. Trust Draco to be able to cheer me up. I hadn't even realised how disappointed I had been that Tom wouldn't be dancing with me.

"Come on, Harry. Let's go back before all of my ice cream has melted," Draco said as he dragged my back towards the dining room where the desert had already been served.

And while I was still a bit down about Tom's unexpected departure, Draco made sure that I not only enjoyed dancing with him but also the rest of the night. I didn't say a word about my betrothal to Tom though as without the dance to announce my and Tom's engagement I had a feeling that they didn't me to say anything about it. And even when I overheard someone gossiping that I and Draco could be engaged, I still kept my silence, giving Nagini another loving caress.

**-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-Verbuar―Blinded-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-**

**Tuesday, 6th August 1991, Diagon Alley**

Diagon Alley―the famous and popular shopping street of wizarding London. I had been there with my parents so many times over the years that it lost its charm long ago. But today, it was like I was seeing the street for the first time all over again.

The reason? It was not only my first Hogwarts' shopping trip, something I was very excited about, but also the ones to accompany me were Tom and Nagini, and only them; my father had to work and while my mother had wanted to come with us, she had been called away before breakfast due to an emergency at the Ministry.

So, instead of meeting Tom with my mum in Diagon Alley, Lord Slytherin had taken the Floo to my house and Side-Along-Apparated us just around the corner of Gringotts. And somehow the wizarding bank with its light stone facade looked more magnificent than usual.

"Your father insisted that we use the money from your school-trust-fund for today's expanses," Tom offered as an explanation as he led me into Gringotts.

My feeling that he had wanted to pay for my purchases with his own money was confirmed when he reluctantly demanded us to be brought to my trust-fund. After a two minute ride through the underground of the bank, we finally reached my vault. While I was telling Tom how much fun I had during the ride, Nagini was loudly complaining about goblins and their unfit methods of transportation.

"Here we are," our goblin guide announced as he opened the door of my vault.

"That's only for my time at Hogwarts?" I asked when I saw the mountain of Galleons.

"It is," Tom answered, not the slightest bit impressed by all the money.

"That's just...Wow," I said, being nearly speechless. I couldn't believe that all of it was mine.

Having calmed down, I finally asked, "How much do we need?" being unsure how expensive my school supplies would be.

"One hundred and fifty Galleons should be more than enough," Tom said after he estimated the costs. "Especially with Severus having already gotten your Potions supplies," he added, making me feel like the Potions stuff I and Draco got for our birthdays had cost about fifty Galleons or even more. And knowing uncle Severus and his love for good quality ingredients and equipment, I wouldn't be surprised if he had paid nearly one hundred Galleons for our presents.

"Okay," I answered, a bit surprised at how expensive the initial equipment was.

Luckily my parents had arranged that if I opened my money bag and said "I want to take out one hundred and fifty Galleons," the mentioned amount would automatically move into the open bag. Thus, I didn't spend minutes on counting out the sum Tom had calculated.

When we reached the main hall of the Gringotts, Nagini was once again complaining about goblins and their lack of elegant and smooth transportation. However, I wasn't paying any attention to her as I tried to decide where we should go first.

Getting my own snake was at the top of my list. Nagini, unfortunately, wasn't in a friendly and amiable mood and would surely find a reason to dislike any of the snakes we saw. So, I told Tom that I wanted to get my robes first in the hope that while I was fitted Nagini would calm down.

"An unusual first stop," Tom commented as we walked towards Madam Malkin's.

"Nagni doesn't seem too social right now so the Menagerie has to wait," I said. "Besides, it will be nice to have the robes out of the way."

"You don't like Madam Malkin?" Tom asked with a raised eyebrow.

"Oh, no. She's alright, I guess," I told him with a shrug of my shoulder. "I just don't like how long it takes for the clothes to be fitted and having to stand still for so long."

"Ah," Lord Slytherin replied in understanding as he opened the shop door for me.

"Welcome. Hogwarts too, my dear?" the shop owner greeted us, or me.

"Yes," Tom and I answered simultaneously.

"Come over here then," she said, surprisingly ignoring Lord Slytherin, who was standing right next to me, and only having eyes for me as she guided me towards the adjusting area.

"Finally," I groaned out over an hour later as we left the shop.

"See it positive, Harry. At least now we only have the enjoyable things to get, like your snake," Tom said to cheer me up again.

"Come on," I said as I grabbed Tom's hand and dragged him and Nagini towards the Magical Menagerie.

Tom just laughed in amusement as he let me drag him towards the shop.

When we entered the pet shop, some of the smaller animals tried to hid as much as their cages allowed out of fear of Nagini.

"Lord Slytherin," we were greeted by the manager of the shop. "How can I help you?" he asked, eager to please his Lord.

"We're in search for a snake for Harry," he said, guiding me a step forward with his right hand on my back.

"If you would please follow me," the owner said, leading us towards a back room with about twenty terrariums which housed not only snakes but also an iguana or two.

"Thank you, we'll pick out a snake on our own. _Won't we, Nagini?_" Tom dismissed the owner with an obvious reminder of his Parseltongue ability, wanting some privacy as we picked out my snake.

"Of course, my Lord," was all the salesclerk said before he left us to our own devises.

As the terrariums were constructed of two aisles, Tom and I decided to split up and pursue one aisle each. Looking around the terrariums in my path I saw a green anaconda, a green tree python, a black mamba and a king cobra.

"_Another idiot to stare at us,_" the black mamba said when I was in front of its glass cage. I wondered why he called me an idiot. _Hadn't he heard how Tom spoke to Nagini? _I thought, deciding that I wouldn't take this one.

A bit put off by its remark, together with my bad mood from Madame Malkin's, I couldn't help but to tell the snake, "_And you will be stared at for a while longer,"_ before walking towards the next terrarium.

"How about this one, Harry?" Tom asked me from the other aisle before I could take a closer look at the tree python.

Going over to Tom, I saw that he was looking at a snake which was only about one metre long but its marking and colouring looked very similar to Nagini's.

"_Hello,_" the snake greeted me. "_Nagini told me that you're a very special child_," the snake added before I could greet it back.

"_Hello,_" I finally greeted the snake, surprised that Nagini seemed to already like the snake. _Maybe it was because they were of the same species? _I mused.

"_How are you?_" I asked, not knowing what else to say.

"_I'm fine. I would be better though if I could get out of here and stretch out my body. This place will be too small in a year or two,"_ the snake answered, clearly wanting to leave his glass prison.

"_Just take him with you, little one,"_ Nagini demanded, having moved her head from Tom's shoulder towards my face. It was obvious that she wanted to spend more time with the snake in front of us.

With a chuckle Tom chided her, "_It's Harry's decision, and not yours, which snake he wants to take."_

"_Would you want to go to Hogwarts with me?_" I asked. While I still hadn't decided if I would get him, I couldn't say that I didn't like his colouring. His attitude was also much better than that of the black mamba I met before.

"_It depends. Will I get some tasty rats and rabbits there?"_ the snake asked.

"_Ehm...Yes,"_ I answered, not knowing if it was true, but then I could always ask Severus if he could buy me a rat or two when he goes out of the castle to get some new potions ingredients.

"_Then I would happily come with you."_

"_You can't bite any of the students or teachers though,"_ I added, only now remembering that Nagini and this snake were very lethal creatures.

"_As long as they don't attack you or me, this won't be a problem,_" he said.

"I'll take this one," I said to Tom, slipping out of speaking Parseltongue when I stopped looking at the snakes.

"Are you sure?" he asked me in English.

"Yes," I answered. "He seems very friendly. Besides, I'm sure that Nagini will dislike any other snake in here out of principle anyway," I added.

"That's true," Tom answered with a smirk.

"_Do you have a name?_" I asked the snake, slipping back into Parseltongue as I once again was facing the snake.

"_No, not yet,"_ he answered.

"_How about __**Nagijan***__?"_ I asked, remembering the name I had come up with some days ago.

"_After Nagini?_" he asked back.

"_Yes,"_ I admitted, a bit embarrassed that I wanted to name my snake after Tom's. _"You can have another name if you don't like it,"_ I added.

"_No, I like Nagijan very much,_" the newly named Nagijan answered, as he climbed up my arm to coil around my shoulders. Tom had already pulled out his wand to cancel the spells on the terrarium so that I could open the lid and Nagijan could move out of his prison.

"Let's go to the counter then," Lord Slytherin said.

"We're taking this one," Tom informed the owner of the Menagerie, offhandedly pointing towards the snake coiled around me.

"Ehm...well...yes...That will be thirty-six Galleons, nine Sickles and twenty-two Knuts," he finally stammered out. Apparently, he was spooked by the sight of a very dangerous snake so leisurely lying around an eleven year old's neck. Which was very funny considering that he didn't seem to mind Nagini being draped around Tom.

After Tom handed over the mentioned amount, we walked out of the Magical Menagerie and crossed the street to get my books from Flourish and Blotts, before it was time for our last stop, Ollivanders.

"Ah, Mr Potter and Lord Slytherin," the old wandmaker greeted us when we entered his shop. "Yew, thirteen and one half inches long with a Phoenix feather core," he said to Tom, making it seem like he couldn't greet anyone properly without rattling off the facts about the wand he sold them.

"Try out this one," Mr Ollivander said to me as he handed me a wand made of cedar and unicorn hair after he had taken my measures.

Both Nagijan and I were startled when the shelf to our right exploded.

"Not this one then. How about this," Ollivander said, handling over the next wand while Tom repaired the shelf with a flick of his wand.

After ten more wands which didn't match, Ollivander gave Tom and I a searching glance, taking in our mathcing looks, black hair, dark green robes and our snakes coiled around us and walked towards the back of his shop, muttering, "Maybe...Hmm, yes that could be it..."

Two minutes later he finally came back to the front and presented me another wand in a dusty box, "Eleven inches of finest holly," he said.

Taking out the wand, I felt an immediate connection. The wand felt like it warmed under my touch and began to hum.

"Try it," the wandmaker encouraged me.

And for the first time in fifteen minutes, instead of something breaking or exploding, the wand let out colourful sparks.

"Interesting, very interesting," Ollivander mumbled so low under his breath that I was barely able to catch what he said. "How very interesting, indeed that you, Mr Potter, would be the one to wield the brother wand of Lord Slytherin," he finally explained his previous mumble to us as someone opened the shop's door making the bell chime.

"Ah, there you are, Harry," said a coarse voice coming from a man who was over eleven feet tall and was poking his head through the door as he was too tall to enter. "I've been searching for you," he added.

Unsure, I looked at Tom, seeking his advice on how I should react to this unknown big man. It unsettled me that he knew my name while I didn't even remember having seen his face anywhere.

"Let's pay for your wand first, then we'll see what Hagrid wants," Tom said, leading me towards the counter, obviously not happy to see the half-giant.

"That will be seven Galleons," Mr Ollivander said.

After paying, we walked out of the shop to see what Hagrid, as Tom had called him, wanted from me.

"Hello, Harry, Tom," the man greeted us with a nod.

I could see how much Tom disliked to be called by his given name, which I could completely understand. After all, he was the Lord of wizarding Britain and should at least be called by his last name, if not addressed by his title in public. Therefore, I wasn't surprised by Tom's unfriendly and harsh, "What do you want?"

"Oh, yeah..." the big man began. "Dumbledore sent me here to give Harry a belated birthday present," he said, holding out a cage with a beautiful snowy owl in it. "Great man, Dumbledore. He remembered that some years ago you said that you wanted to bring a pet to Hogwarts but the one you had in mind doesn't agree with the rules, so he asked me to pick out a nice owl for you," he explained, holding out the cage towards me.

While I couldn't deny that the owl was really gorgeous and I would love to call her my own, my parents had told me to not accept a sweet or anything else from a stranger. I also didn't want to risk being able to go shopping with Tom again by angering my parents with taking home the owl.

For the second time in five minutes, I looked at Tom for guidance. And, to my great surprise, he seemed to know exactly what I was thinking._ Maybe he had used Legilimency on me?_ I wondered as Tom handled Hagrid.

"As you can see, I already got Harry a pet," Lord Slytherin said, pointing at Nagijan who hissed at Hagrid.

"But Headmaster Dumbledore explicitly said that snakes aren't allowed at Hogwarts," Hagrid interrupted him, repeating the reminder Dumbledore must have given him this morning.

"And neither are Acromantulas," Tom immediately replied, making me wonder why he was bringing up dangerous spiders. "And I've already told the headmaster that Harry has my expressive permission to bring a snake.

"But nevertheless, I'm sure that Harry would love to accept the owl you picked out for him. wouldn't you, Harry?" Tom added to my relief. For a moment, I had feared that Tom would deny me the owl.

"Yes," I said with an enthusiastic nod, happily taking the cage with the snowy owl, now that I knew that it would be okay for me to accept the gift.

"Thank you," I said after a short pause to pet the owl through the bars. My mother would have scolded me if I didn't at least thank the person who gave me such a wonderful present. "And also pass on my thanks to the headmaster," I added as an afterthought.

"I will," was Hagrid's short answer. He seemed to at least be happy that I loved the owl he chose for me.

"The owl really is beautiful," I commented, as the snowy owl playfully nipped my index finger.

"That she is," Hagrid agreed. "Do you already have a name for her?" he asked.

As I hadn't known her gender before, I needed a moment to come up with a name. "Hedwig." I finally decided, naming her after the German witch who invented the first flying broom and was also well known for her very pale complexion and even paler hair. Thus, naming the snowy owl after the equally pale witch, and also because I had just gotten her Chocolate Frog Card this morning.

"She likes it," Hagrid said. "I have to go though. See you at Hogwarts, Harry," Hagrid bid in farewell before he took his leave.

"How about we go to Fortescue's before we head back?" Tom asked and I happily agreed.

When we arrived, I saw that Fortescue had a special "Alice in Wonderland week" where he had created ten new ice cream flavours, all named after characters of the Muggle book.

The two of us decided to not brave tasting _The Mock Turtle_ as it consisted of vanilla ice cream with Bertie Bott's Every-Flavour Beans. Instead I chose to try out _The Mad Hatter _which was made of chocolate chip ice cream and Acid Pops. Tom, on the other hand, chose _The Cheshire Cat_, a mix of chocolate ice cream with Pepper Imps.

"_How can you two eat something which is so sweet?"_ Nagijan asked when he smelled the sundae in front of me as we walked towards one of the free tables.

"_Unlike us, humans have a sweet tongue," _Nagini explained from Tom's shoulder. "_You'll get used to it."_

"_As long as I don't have to eat it," _Nagijan replied before resting his head back onto my shoulder. I just shook my head while Tom smiled softly.

"Mhmm," I moaned after I took a first bite. I loved how the Acid Pops prickled in my mouth and mixed with the melting chocolate.

"I'm glad that you like your ice cream," Tom commented with a smile.

I smiled back and eyeing Tom's sundae asked, "How's yours?"

"It's good. Do you want to have a taste?" he surprisingly asked me.

"Thank you," I said as I took a small scoop with my spoon from his portion. "It's good, but a bit too much chocolate for my taste," I commented.

"Don't you like chocolate?" Tom asked, wondering about my comment as kids usually loved chocolate.

"Oh, no. I like chocolate just fine. In ice cream though, I prefer it to be in chunks and not splashed with milk," I explained my dislike of chocolate ice cream.

When we finished our sundaes, Tom took Hedwig's cage into his right hand and my hand into his left one and walked us to the nearest Apparation Point to return to Slytherin Manor where I would be staying for a whole week so that Tom could help me get to know my new snake as he explained my extended stay to my parents.

In truth though, he just wanted to spend some time with me so that we could get to know each other better. After all, being a Parselmonth I was perfectly capable of getting to know Nagijan on my own.

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**Wednesday, 7th August 1991**

"Have you already read today's _Prophet_?" Severus asked Lord Slytherin, when the two met for a talk a day after my and Tom's trip to Diagon Alley.

"No, I didn't have the time yet," Tom answered. "Harry had been talking non-stop during breakfast about his new snake Nagijan. So, I hadn't even thought about picking up the paper. Should I read it?"

"It would be advisable," Severus dryly replied.

"Wipsy," Tom called out and the mentioned house-elf appeared. "Bring me today's _Prophet_."

Not a second later, the elf returned and handed over the newspaper. Tom only needed to take a look at the headline of the first page to see why Severus wanted him to read it.

_**~Harry James Potter – The new heartbreaker?**_

_**By Rita Skeeter**_

_**He is just about to enter Hogwarts this coming September and already he seems to have caught the interest of two influential people. I'm talking about none other than Harry James Potter, son of Lord Slytherin's second in-command James Potter, and a rare Foreas (for more information see page 5).**_

_**The list of Mr Potter's possible future husbands does include both Draco Malfoy, heir of the Malfoy family and son of Lord Slytherin's first in-command Lucius Malfoy, and―who would believe it―Lord Slytherin himself. While neither party has confirmed an engagement to the young Mr Potter, there are still many signs for both of their interest.**_

_**Draco Malfoy did not only share his own introduction to society opening dance with Mr Potter, but he also was the one who lead Harry to the dance floor a week ago during the brunet's own party (see right picture). And, my dear readers, we all know that often the child is dancing its opening dance with their future spouse, don't we?**_

_**However, one of the guests of Mr Potter's party told me that they overheard that Mr Malfoy wasn't Harry's first choice of dance partner. Apparently he was only a substitution for Harry's original dance partner, who had to cancel at the last minute. Thus, it is self-evident to assume that it was one of the single men which had been called away from the party due to Greyback's attack on Hogsmead, as none other guests had cancelled their presence at the party so abruptly. Which brings me to Harry's other suitor, our beloved Lord Slytherin.**_

_**It didn't stay unnoticed that whenever Lord Slytherin and Harry attend the same social gathering, the two of them are always sitting close to each other so that Lord Slytherin can 'keep an eye on his snake Nagini', as he officially says. Another, more saying indication for our Lord's interest in the young Mr Potter is that Harry wears two earrings. It can't be coincident that Harry was seen with the second earring for the first time during his introduction party. **_

_**I am sure that, if the attack hadn't happened, Lord Slytherin would have been the one to lead Harry to his first dance and afterwards would have officially announced their engagement. Though, the strongest indication that Lord Slytherin is already the lucky one who had caught Harry for himself is his lack of denial. There hasn't been a case before where Lord Slytherin hadn't promptly ended any rumours regarding an engagement or potential love-interest of his.**_

_**Therefore, this author believes that our Lord has finally found someone who he wants to marry. Though, we hope that he will be patient enough for Harry to grow up before he makes any advances on the young, impressive boy. But currently, we don't have to worry about our beloved Lord taking advantage of Mr Potter if yesterday is any indication.**_

_**Then, Lord Slytherin and Harry were seen in Diagon Alley obviously on the child's first Hogwarts shopping trip, something which is usually done with the child's family. Besides the obligatory trip to Flourish and Blotts, Ollivanders and Madam Malkin's, they also went to Florean Fortescue's Ice-Cream Parlour, where our Lord even let Harry taste his ice cream (see left picture).**_

_**Another interesting stop on their shopping trip was the Magical Menagerie, where Lord Slytherin picked out a snake for Harry. It is remarkable that he picked out a snake of the same species as Nagini for the young boy. It makes us wonder why he chose such a highly dangerous snake for an eleven year old, who, unlike him, hasn't the help of speaking Parseltongue to keep the snake in line. After all, our Lord's own familiar is known to be extremely poisonous besides being a deadly constrictor. **_

_**However, the snake wasn't the only living present Harry got. I was fortunate enough to witness how Albus Dumbledore, headmaster of Hogwarts, gifted young Mr Potter with a snowy owl handed out by the gameskeeper, Rubeus Hagrid. Apparently, the headmaster had already previously voiced his disagreement of Harry bringing a snake with him to Hogwarts even though Lord Slytherin had given his explicit permission as a founder's heir. **_

_**However, one has to wonder why Albus Dumbledore decided to appease Mr Potter with another approved animal. After all, it was just four years ago when Gregory Giles had been denied to bring his iguana to school and Dumbledore hadn't given him a compensation, had he? So, it seems like that not only Lord Slytherin and the Malfoy family are interested in the young Mr Potter, but also Albus Dumbledore.**_

_**All in all, with Harry being a rare Foreas, the son of the greatly respected James Potter and, to top it off, having so many influential and important people showing an interest for him, we at the Daily Prophet are sure that Harry Potter has a great future before him and will break many a man's heart.~**_

"And that's why I wanted to keep the engagement secret," Tom finally said when he finished reading. "While Skeeter hasn't directly called me a paedophile, she still planted the seed of doubt in her readers' mind," he added, referring to the middle of the article.

"Yes, I was surprised that someone like Skeeter had been able to write something so subtle," Severus commented. "We can only hope that she will continue to not make any direct accusations about you taking advantage of Harry," the Potions master said.

"However, I had assumed that you wanted to keep your engagement a secret because of Dumbledore and not because you feared what one journalist would say," Severus added.

"You're not wrong. But, I believe that we both know that Dumbledore already knows about my interest in Harry. Besides, I feel better now that Harry knows about our engagement. This way he can get used to the idea," Tom answered.

"And as Harry isn't an Occlumence like us, it would only have been a matter of time until Dumbledore would have found it out from Harry. So, I see no reason to hide my intentions any longer," Lord Slytherin explained.

"That's also why you decided to go Hogwarts shopping with him without his parents instead of making an official statement?" Severus asked rhetorically. "Though, I have to say that I'm surprised at your choice of snake for Harry," Severus said, picking up on another comment of the newspaper article.

"Ah, yes," Tom said, before he took a sip of his coffee. "If you remember what Dumbledore said two years ago about snakes being able to strangle people to death or poison them, I had actually considered getting a Basilisk from Knockturn for Harry. After all, opposed to all the other snake races, it can kill with a glance," Tom told Severus about the idea he had to spit directly in Dumbledore's face but in the end had decided against it. If necessary, he could always tell me about the Basilisk who currently resided in the Chamber of Secrets.

Severus wisely decided to not comment on the Basilisk, instead he changed the topic. "By the way, how is Harry getting along with..._Nagijan, _you said?" the Potions master asked, correctly remembering the name I gave my new snake.

"They're already inseparable," Tom answered with a smile, fondly remembering the sight he saw when he checked up on me the previous night. I had been sleeping in the bed with Nagijan resting next to my head, sharing one pillow.

And as to prove Tom's point, I chose this moment to knock on the study door and entered the room after Tom called out his permission with Nagijan securely coiled around my shoulders and Nagini following after us, ending the adults' discussion as I proudly showed Nagijan off to my godfather.

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And this is how I finally knew that I would marry Tom after I graduated Hogwarts. Though, the news paled in comparison to getting both of my pets―my owl Hedwig and my snake Nagijan. But then, I had the animals with me now, while the impending marriage was still years away. So I, of course, was more interested in getting to know my new pets than thinking about my wedding or what being the future consort of Lord Slytherin would mean for the rest of my life―besides not having to kiss any girls.

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**James Barrie: **The author of Peter Pan.

**150 Galleons**: equals 750 ₤.

**Nagijan:** The name is inspired by Nagini's name. The Hindu call the Female Snake God Nagarani and the Male God Nagarajan. So I modelled Nagijan after Nagini.

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**AN: **The next chapter will be taking a bit longer again as exams are approaching and I really need to work on my other story. Sorry, but this chapter was extra long to make up for it.

And if anyone knows how expansive schoolbooks and uniforms are in the UK, fell free to tell me.


	8. Chapter 7

**Disclaimer****: **See prologue.

**Guide:** "Speech", _Thoughts, __**~letters and other written things**_, "_Parseltongue__" _

**Beta: **cuter-than-a-guinea-pig. All remaining errors are my own.

**AN: **Thank you for participating in the poll. You can see the result in this chapter. And sorry for the delay, I had to study for my exams besides real life keeping me busy.

* * *

**-~-~- Verbuar -~-~-**

**-~-~-by Still waters are deep-~-~-**

**-~-~- Chapter 7 -~-~-**

What are the characteristics of a good consort of a powerful lord? It is to be brave at heart, daring, and chivalrous like Gryffindors? It is to be just, loyal, and unafraid of hard work like the students of Hufflepuff? Or maybe it is to be cunning and not hesitating from using any means necessary to achieve your aims like Slytherins are said to be? Or do they need to be intelligent and witty like a true Ravenclaw?

Who knows? It isn't like many people are only considered for one of Hogwarts' four houses, as the majority show characteristic of two, if not all, of the houses. So, you can't say if Gryffindor, Hufflepuff, Slytherin or Ravenclaw is the house for the perfect consort, can you?

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**Sunday, 1st September 1991**

I can still clearly remember the day I started Hogwarts. Unlike the previous week where it had rained daily, the first of September was a warm and sunny day making me feel like I was going on a second summer vacation with my friends.

My parents decided that we would have breakfast in a nice little restaurant in a side street of Diagon Alley, where we met up with Sirius and Remus. From there we walked through the Leaky Cauldron towards Muggle London to take a cab to King's Cross station.

While we could easily have taken the Floo to Platform 9 ¾, mum and dad insisted that entering the platform through the barrier is as much a part of starting Hogwarts as the Sorting is. While I couldn't deny that the sigh of the red steaming engine impressed me, I was more concerned about finding Draco in the mass of people.

Fortunately for me, Lucius Malfoy, with his tall frame and white blonde hair, stood out in a crowd. Not letting the head of the Malfoy patriarch out of my sight, I dragged my mother and the Marauders towards where Draco should be.

"Harry," Draco happily greeted me. "I feared that you overslept and then wouldn't arrive in time," he continued, not giving me the chance to greet him back. "I already tried to talk dad into Flooing over to your house to see what was holding you up."

"Hello, to you too," I said when my friend finally paused. "We took a cab from the Leaky Cauldron and were held up a bit by the morning rush," I explained. "But really, just because we're ten minutes late you do not have to send a search party after us," I joked.

"Come boys, it's time to say your goodbyes," Lucius Malfoy said when he noticed that the train would leave in twenty minutes. With all the people there to see us off, it would easily take fifteen minutes before everyone had bid their farewell.

"Have fun, Harry," Sirius said. "Try to not break too many hearts," he added, referring to Skeeter's article in August. "And most importantly, make good use of the map I gave you," he said with a wink.

"Don't listen to what he says," Remus butted in. "Just use the map to not get lost during your first weeks and _not_ to land in detention on the first week of school," the werewolf said, repeating the words my father used when he and his two friends gave me the Marauder's Map. Though, my father had also added that after I became familiar with the short-cuts, I should use the map for pranking.

"And don't forget to write to us," Sirius said, his voice making it clear that he wanted to hear all about the pranks he wished I'd pull on my classmates.

"I will," I promised them.

"Goodbye, Harry," they said and gave me a big hug each.

"Won't you say goodbye to your favourite aunt?" Bellatrix asked, as she swept me in a tight hug of her own, mindful of Nagijan who was sleeping on my left shoulder.

I was really happy that a few days ago I had had the chance to spend some time alone with her where she'd told me that she wasn't angry or jealous about my engagement to Lord Slytherin. She insisted that, even without having children of her own, she was very happy with her husband and wouldn't give it up for anything. She made me promise though, that I would name her the godmother of my child, which I readily agreed to without really thinking about it or what it entailed. But then, she was a very good godmother to Draco, so why shouldn't she be the godmother of another child?

Bellatrix was followed by her husband and her two brothers-in-law as well as her sister Narcissa.

Finally, it was my parents' turn to say goodbye. Like Sirius, they reminded me to write to them and once again emphasised that it wouldn't matter to them which house I would be sorted into. My mother added that regardless of my future house, I could always go to Severus if I needed help.

With eight minutes to spare, Draco and I finally entered the Hogwarts Express and went in search for a free compartment.

Having found a free one in the middle of the train, we looked out of the window to let our family know that we found a place to sit and waved at them when the train left the station.

Ten minutes into the ride, our compartment door was opened by a bushy-haired witch who introduced herself as Hermione Granger and asked if we'd seen a toad.

Before we could decline, a familiar voice greeted, "Hi, Harry, Draco," and we saw Neville stepping out from behind Hermione.

"Hi, Neville," we greeted back.

"You lost Trevor?" Draco asked.

"Yes," our childhood friend admitted. "He escaped when I was opening the door to the next wagon."

"Have you at least found a compartment?" I asked. Knowing my old friend, he had been so worried about finding his toad that he hadn't bothered to get himself a place to sit.

"Not yet," Neville answered as expected.

"If you want to, you can join us here after you found your toad," I offered. "You too, Hermione," I added, including the witch who was kind enough to help out Neville.

"Thank you," they both said, grateful to have somewhere to stay.

"Make sure to not let him escape again, though. Less he ends up as Nagijan's lunch," Draco added, pointing at the sleeping snake on my shoulder.

"Now, I remember where I saw your faces," Hermione said when she finally noticed the snake. "You're the one who was in the Daily Prophet last month," she said to me and moving her head towards Draco, she added "And your one of his supposed fiancés."

"Supposed is the key word," Draco answered, annoyed. When he'd read the article about our supposed engagement, he had written me a letter ranting about all the rubbish Skeeter wrote.

While Draco's letter was fun to read, I couldn't blame the press for their assumptions. Like Skeeter said, it was suspicious that Draco and I danced our first official dances with each other. And if Draco hadn't been there when Tom gave me the second earring, I'm sure that he too wouldn't have figured out that I was already engaged to Lord Slytherin.

"We're just friends," I added to prevent Hermione from asking Draco further questions about it. It wouldn't do any good to get my blond friend worked up and start another rant.

When she still seemed to be unsatisfied by our answer, I said "Good luck with finding Trevor," to get her to leave the compartment. For now.

"Let's hope that it will be a while before they find the toad," Draco said, after Hermione and Neville had moved on to the next compartment. I just hummed in agreement.

**-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-Verbuar―Blinded-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-**

By the time Draco and I walked together into the Great Hall, we had come to the conclusion that Hermione wasn't so bad after all. As long as she stayed clear of the whole topic of my supposed engagement, she was easy to get along with. Draco and I agreed that it was very interesting to see how a Muggle-born saw our world.

Hermione on the other hand had been glad to hear that while my mother was also a Muggle-born, it now wasn't noticeable at all that she hadn't grown up in the Wizarding world. Although, she could also have been relieved to hear that my mother had been one of the best students in her year even though she had been new to it all. Knowing her, it was probably the later.

I was surprised when Neville was sorted into Gryffindor. When we'd talked during the train ride about which house we would end up in, even Neville had said that he would go to Hufflepuff. Draco's sorting into Slytherin was expected, as well as Hermione being sorted into Ravenclaw. And then it was finally my turn to put on the Sorting Hat.

"Interesting, very interesting," I heard a voice say in my head. "I see bravery and a love for books but there's also the wish to prove yourself..." the voice went on. "Hmm...yes...I believe that with what your role in life will be you should better be in '**Slytherin!'**" the hat finally shouted out for everyone to hear.

Taking off the hat, I smiled at my godfather, who smiled back, before I walked over to where Draco was clapping loudly for me along with the rest of Slytherin house. Sitting down next to him, we watch how the remaining students were sorted and then enjoyed our first Hogwarts meal, unaware of the blue eyes which watched us throughout the meal.

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"Forget it!" Blaise Zabini yelled right after Severus announced the room arrangement for the new Slytherin students. "There's no way in hell that I'll sleep in a room with Potter!" he yelled as he crossed his arms in front of his chest.

"Mr Zabini," Severus said authoritatively. "This is a boarding school where students share a dorm with other people. I'm sure that your mother already informed you about this."

"I know," Blaise answered, his voice calmer now. "It isn't sharing a dorm which is the problem, it's Potter," he explained.

_Me?_ I wondered. _Why does he have a problem with me? It's not like we know each other, _I thought, looking questioningly at Draco, who only shrugged his shoulders in answer, not knowing what Zabini's problem was either.

"And why, pray tell, do you have a problem with him?" Severus asked, starting to get annoyed, especially since Blaise was attacking one of his beloved godsons.

"It's not him in particular, it's his snake. I don't want to sleep in the same room as a very perilous reptile," Blaise finally admitted.

Severus groaned when he heard the explanation. He had put Blaise and me in the same dormitory because we were both Foreas and the other first-year boys in the second, larger dormitory.

"I'll switch with Zabini," Draco offered to solve the issue. "Unlike him, I'm not afraid of Nagijan," he said proudly bordering to arrogance and even petted Nagijan for emphasis.

To my right, I heard Parkinson whisper to the other girls that it was a shame that a Slytherin was afraid of a snake, to which Nott answered that he wanted to see her petting Nagijan.

He just laughed when he saw her horrified face at the suggestion. It seemed like Blaise wasn't the only Slytherin who feared his house mascot.

After letting out a long sigh, Severus finally announced, "Malfoy can switch with Zabini for tonight. I'll talk with the headmaster about an alternative arrangement tomorrow." And with this, he dismissed us for the night, making me and Draco happy that we would have a room to ourselves.

**-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-Verbuar―Blinded-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-**

And while Draco and I were getting ready for bed, Severus was already getting a headache. He feared that the talk with Dumbledore the next day wouldn't go well. After the headmaster had openly announced that he didn't want Harry to bring a snake to Hogwarts, said snake was now the reason why the two Foreas weren't separated from the other boys.

Severus knew that he couldn't separate Nagijan and I. Not only because I would be very sad and angry about it, but also because Lord Slytherin would have his hide for it. So, as long as Zabini was afraid of Nagijan he couldn't put us in the same dorm.

The current solution wouldn't work in the long run either. While Lord Slytherin hadn't said anything about Draco and I sharing a bed when he visited me on my birthday, Severus knew that even if we were now sleeping in our own beds, Tom would only tolerate this sleeping arrangement until I reached fertility.

While the usual gender separation between boys and girls started with them turning seven, boys and Foreas were only separated while sleeping when they started Hogwarts. In other aspects of their lives though, like sports or change rooms, the Foreas were not differentiated from the other boys.

The reason behind this separation was that while Foreas on the outside had the same body structure like any other male—so nothing to watch there, they still could get impregnated by their male peers. Therefore, to avoid unwanted sexual advances or rumours, they had separate dormitories. Though, as long as the Foreas was still infertile, the Wizarding world tended to turn a blind eye if a Foreas and a male slept in the same room even after they started Hogwarts. As Foreas usually became fertile when they were around thirteen this left Severus with only about two years to find a solution for the current dilemma.

The easiest solution, of course, would be to give Blaise and me separate rooms, but all houses had only fifteen dormitories—seven for the boys, seven for the girls and one for the Foreas. The later not being divided according to their year but just crammed into one dorm as there rarely was more than one Foreas in each house.

Knowing Dumbledore as he did, my godfather knew the headmaster wouldn't allow him to just relocate either Blaise or me into one of the other Foreas dorms or into one of the guest rooms Hogwarts had, saying something about them being reserved for the guest and not for the students and that we were sorted into Slytherin and not Hufflepuff or Ravenclaw.

Of course, Severus could have me live with him in his quarters, but with him being male and unattached, it would be the same as if I continued to share a dorm with Draco. Which brought him back to where he began... It really would be a long talk tomorrow and he feared that he wouldn't like the result at all, especially if afterwards he would have to inform lord Slytherin about the problem.

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**Monday, 2nd September 1991**

Draco and I were just sitting down for breakfast when a swarm of owls darkened the ceiling. The majority of them were either delivering the Prophet or carried the typical 'Congratulation that you're in …' from the family to the first-years.

I got congratulation letters from my parents, Sirius and Tom. While my parents' letter was the usual 'we're proud of you'-letter every parent seemed to write, Sirius was complaining that I wasn't sorted into Gryffindor, coming up with at least ten different possibilities of who was to blame for this. Since some of his assumptions were really funny, I read part of the letter out loud to Draco.

_**~I can't believe that the hat placed you in Slytherin. Surely it isn't working properly anymore due to its old age, or it would have put you in Gryffindor. The only reason that I can think of that it sorted you into Slytherin is that it must have confused you with Nagijan and couldn't do anything else but to sort it into the house of snakes.~**_

Draco chuckled at that theory, but couldn't help but to add, "You know, he could be right about this. The hat sat so low on your head that it nearly touched Nagijan's head, so it could have mixed up the two of you."

"Very funny, Draco", I answered not amused about him making fun of my petite frame, so I decided to read on to stop the blond from making another comment.

_**~Though, I wouldn't put it past Severus that he bribed the hat to put you in his house. Or maybe your fiancé has done something so that you landed in the house he's Lord of. Of course, you could also have spent too much time with Draco for his house affinity to be transferred to you.~**_

"He sounds like being sorted into Slytherin is a highly infectious disease," Draco commented and I couldn't help but to agree with my friend.

"His other theories are even worse," I said, folding Sirius letter and picking up Tom's while Draco unfolded his edition of the _Prophet_.

Tom's letter was the shortest of the three, but still his comment about Nagijan and his Divination skills made me laugh. Though his P.S. was a bit over the top.

_**~Dear Harry,**_

_**Congratulation for being sorted into Slytherin! I would love to celebrate this with gifting you with a snake to honour the house mascot but as I already had the foresight to get you Nagijan last month, this bracelet will have to do. Feel free to add other charms if you want to.**_

_**Love,**_

_**Tom**_

_**P.S. If someone dares to bother you too much, just tell Severus about it or send Nagijan after them~**_

Carefully I took the bracelet out of the envelope. It was made of silver and already had two charms on it. One was a smaller copy of my lightning bolt earrings while the other charm had the form of a snake.

"Nice bracelet," Draco commented when he looked up from the paper and saw me fastening the jewellery on my left wrist.

"Thanks. It's a present from Lord Slytherin," I said, remembering just in time to address Tom by his proper title in public, even if I was just talking to my best friend.

"Since we're already talking about him, you should really read today's front page," Draco said and handed over his copy of the newspaper.

_**~Harry Potter-Lord Slytherin's fiancé**_

_**By Rita Skeeter**_

_**My dear readers, it's finally official: Our beloved Lord Slytherin is engaged to Harry Potter.**_

_**Imagine our surprise at the Prophet when nearly a month after our latest article on Mister Potter **('Harry James Potter – The new heartbreaker?', 07.08)** we finally received a statement from Lord Slytherin. After neither James Potter nor the possible fiancés had approached us, we had firmly believed that young Harry may have gotten marriage proposals from the later parties but that his father hadn't yet decided on a spouse. Though, according to Lord Slytherin's letter to us this doesn't seem to be the case. **_

_**In it he confirmed that he'd already been engaged to Harry for years but had decided to not make it public knowledge to allow Harry to enjoy his childhood without all the pressure the engagement would bring. His wish for Harry to have a normal childhood even goes so far that he's asking the citizens of Wizarding Britain to not approach Harry because of the engagement and to just let him concentrate on his school work and enjoy his time at Hogwarts. **_

_**Some of you may wonder if Lord Slytherin would still have taken Harry as his future consort if he hadn't turned out to be a rare Foreas. To those we can just say that Harry already got his first earring―the typical symbol for an engagement to a member of the Slytherin family―for his baptism, when his Foreas status was still unclear. It gives rise to the question why especially Harry had been chosen. He must possess something else than just being a Foreas to have caught Lord Slytherin's attention mere days after his birth. Unfortunately our enquiries had stayed unanswered. So we'll have to wait and see what makes Harry so special.**_

_**For now, we can do nothing more than to congratulate him on his engagement and wish him the best of luck during his first year at Hogwarts.~**_

By the time I had finished reading the article, most of the other students had read it too and were staring at me._ At least this explained Tom's P.S., _I thought with a sigh, already hating to be the centre of attention.

**-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-Verbuar―Blinded-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-**

And that's how my engagement was made official and how I was sorted into Slytherin_**―**_something which Dumbledore took as a bad omen. In his opinion, both things only substantiated that I would be the one to assure the half-blood Lord's reign as the prophesy predicted and which he would love to see an end to.


	9. Chapter 8

**Disclaimer****: **See prologue.

**Guide:** "Speech", _Thoughts, __**~letters and other written things**_, "_Parseltongue__" _

**Beta: **cuter-than-a-guinea-pig. All remaining errors are my own.

**Warnings for this chapter: **villain Ron

**AN: **Thank you for all the new Kudos and reviews. :)

As the last chapter was a bit short and I was able to finish this first half of chapter 8 in three days, I decided to divide chapter 8 into two parts. This way you also won't have to wait for four weeks before I'd have found the time to finish the other half. So, enjoy the super quick update.

* * *

**-~-~- Verbuar -~-~-**

**-~-~-by Still waters are deep-~-~-**

**-~-~- Chapter 8 -~-~-**

"_The talent of success is nothing more than doing what you can do well, and doing well whatever you do without thought of fame. If it comes at all it will come because it is deserved, not because it is sought after." _

(Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, American Poet)

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When it comes to summaries of my first day at Hogwarts, Longfellow's quote about fame more or less describes how it went. At no point during that day did I do something with the goal in mind to receive the attention of my fellow students. I actually would have been happy to be ignored by them.

But after Skeeter's article in the morning which made the whole school stare at me and whisper about me behind my back, I got even more unwanted attention as the day progressed just because some students hated snakes―both the reptile and the students of Slytherin house.

**-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-Verbuar―Blinded-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-**

During breakfast, the noise in the Great Hall had been so loud that Severus saw himself forced to threaten everyone who wouldn't stop gossiping or staring at me with the loss of twenty house points. Only when they finally calmed down, did Severus distribute our timetables.

Grateful to not be openly stared at any longer, Draco and I were very excited when we saw that we had flying just before the lunch break. And while I was happy that Neville would be there with us, the rest of my house complained about having the best lesson of the week together with the annoying Gryffindors.

Because of the long standing house rivalry, it was expected that a fight would break out between the two houses. What no one would have guessed though, was that shy Neville would be the catalyst of the fight.

When he arrived on the Quidditch pitch, Neville walked away from his fellow Gryffindors and joined Draco and me to ask how we were doing. Ronald Weasley didn't like this at all. The red-head insulted us Slytherins in general and demanded that Neville came back over to the Gryffindor side of the pitch.

Neville didn't buckle. He told Ron that something as petite as being sorted into two different houses wasn't a reason to give up on years of friendship. That made Ron accuse him of only wanting to be close to me because I was engaged to Lord Slytherin. From there, he attacked me, complaining about me being allowed to bring a lethal snake to school when he couldn't even bring his harmless pet rat with him.

Draco, in true form, couldn't help himself but to ridicule Ron for his choice of pet. Ron countered with the fact the Severus would obviously favour us because we were his godsons but his argument was somewhat worthless because we didn't had Potions yet. Therefore, he had no proof for his claim.

Fortunately, Madame Hooch finally joined us before the fight could get out of hands and wands could be drawn.

Halfway through the lesson, Neville had an accident which broke his arm. As Madame Hooch accompanied him to the Hospital Wing, Ron commented that Neville got his due for fraternising with the enemy.

"Look, Neville lost something," Dean Thomas exclaimed, pointing at something in the grass.

Before Draco or I could reach the fallen Remembrall, Ron had already picked it up.

"Let's see what good friends you are," was all he said before he threw the ball-like object as far away as possible.

I didn't think when I grabbed my broom and raced after it, even as Theodore called out to me to get back on the ground, less Madame Hooch came back and found me disobeying her direct order to stay put on the ground.

The famous Potter luck ensured that I caught the Remembrall right in front of the headmaster's office where Severus was in a meeting with McGonagall and Dumbledore regarding the dormitory issue between myself and Blaise.

As I gloriously held out the ball, one of the windows behind my back opened. "Mr Potter," the headmaster said. "What are you doing up here? I'm sure that Madame Hooch doesn't allow her students to fly around the castle during their first flying lesson."

"Uhm," I stammered out at first before I got a grip on myself. "Ronald Weasley threw Neville's Remembrall away, so I raced after it to be able to give it back to my friend," I explained, showing them the ball as proof.

"Still, as honourable as your intentions were, I can't let you get away with this. Fifteen points from Slytherin for going against instructions. And now be a good boy and fly back down to the ground before I'm forced to add a detention," the headmaster dismissed me.

Before Dumbledore could change his mind, or Severus decided to scold me too, I quickly flew away from the window.

"_Don't you dare to get into a wild dash again!"_ Nagijan complained.

In my haste I'd totally forgotten that I still had him wrapped around my shoulders. I had assumed that it would be alright to take him with me during the first lessons of the day. It was only History of Magic and flying, so the teachers shouldn't complain. "_Sorry. __It won't happen again,__" _I hissed out in Parseltongue, being far away enough from anyone else to not be overheard speaking the language of the snakes.

"_I hope so,"_ he answered before he became mute again.

"You got it," Draco congratulated as I landed.

"Yeah," I answered subdued. "But I also lost us fifteen points because Weasley had to throw it right towards the headmaster's office."

**-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-Verbuar―Blinded-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-**

In said office my godfather Severus was busy gloating. Because of Dumbledore's stubbornness, he and Professor McGonagall had been looking out the windows in annoyance and saw how I caught the Remembrall.

"You know, Minerva, if Mr Potter, like his parents, had been sorted into your house, you would just have found yourself a new Seeker," he said to the Transfiguration teacher. "But alas, I believe he will win the cup for Slytherin this year. Again."

"Now, now, my boy," Dumbledore barged in. "As nice as it is that Slytherin has won the cup for three years in a row, you should very well know that first-years aren't allow to bring a broom and therefore can't play for the house teams."

"Now, Albus," Severus began with a smirk. "If you'd just agreed to let either Mr Zabini or Potter use one of the many guest rooms, like I and Minerva suggested, I wouldn't have to contact Lord Slytherin to inform him of the current dormitory issue.

"I'm sure that it won't be a problem at all to get his special permission for Mr Potter to bring a broom and to play on the house team while I'm at it." Severus' smirk grew wider when he saw the twinkle in the blue eyes dim. They all knew after today's front page that he would easily get any special permissions from Tom for me.

"Ah, but Severus, we wouldn't want the other students to think that we're unfairly favouring Harry," Dumbledore countered, trying to get the upper hand again.

"But it isn't us who is favouring Mr Potter; it's his fiancé," my godfather said as he closed the door to Dumbledore's office. He knew that he had at least won this round, if not the fight about the guest room. Although, Severus was relatively sure that he would be able to win the later one too after he contacted Lord Slytherin.

**-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-Verbuar―Blinded-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-**

"Congratulations, Mr Potter," Severus addressed me just after I sat down for lunch and, as previously agreed, used my last name to maintain the teacher-student relationship. "You're now officially Slytherin's new Seeker."

I couldn't say anything in response, I was just perplexed.

"Wow, that's cool, Harry," Draco congratulated, slapping my left shoulder.

"But aren't first-years forbidden to play?" asked Theodore Nott from my right.

"Yeah, he hasn't even tried out," Terence Higgs added.

"Let us just say that the stunt he pulled during his flying lesson was qualification enough, Mr Higgs," Severus explained, giving me a glare for said stunt―or maybe for having been caught; who knows?

"And to answer your question, Mr Nott, Lord Slytherin has just given me his permission for Mr Potter to play," he told Theo.

"You really have found the **Philosopher's Stone***," Theo said in regards to the doors that had been opened for me because of my engagement to Lord Slytherin. "I wish I had a lord who would give me all the special permission for anything," he told me in good humour, not seeming to be jealous about the special treatment I got but just expressing his wishful thinking.

"Come to my office after classes are over. We'll discuss the details then," Severus told me before he walked towards his seat at the head table.

It didn't take long before the news of my Seeker position and that I was the youngest player in a century made its way around the whole hall. The older students all eager to get the first-year Gryffindors and Slytherins to tell them all about my spectacular catch.

"Come on, let's get out of here and visit Neville," I said to Draco as the stares got too much. Grabbing a sandwich each, we left the Great Hall in favour to go to the Hospital Wing a bit earlier than planned as we'd originally wanted to eat some lunch first.

**-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-Verbuar―Blinded-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-**

At half past three I knocked on Severus' office door, not eager to get scolded by my godfather and Head of House on the first day of school.

"Enter!" he called out in a stern voice.

I was relieved when I reached the visitor's chair and Severus said, "Take a seat and have some tea, Harry."

By the use of my given name, I knew that he wouldn't scold me as a teacher for the stunt in flying, so I wouldn't get detention on the first day of school like Ronald Weasley. _Maybe __Severus__ just wanted to ask me how I was doing, now that my engagement is public knowledge?_ I wondered.

"Thank you, Severus," I said as I took my seat.

"While as your teacher I should reprimand you for acting without thinking, as your godfather I'm very proud of you. Not only because it was an amazing catch but also, because you stood up for your friend, regardless of the ongoing house rivalry."

"Thank you," I answered, a bit embarrassed by his praise.

"As for you being Slytherin's new Seeker, I have to tell you that you're only allowed to stay on the team as long as your grades don't suffer. So don't neglect your school work."

"Okay," I said with a smile. I still couldn't believe that I'd made the team without even trying out.

My godfather just smiled in return. After we took a sip of our tea, he went on. "As you've seen, I was talking with the headmaster and Professor McGonagall this morning. Like I feared, Professor Dumbledore didn't agree to let you or Mr Zabini use one of the guest rooms, insisting that I should just get rid of your snake."

"You wouldn't!" I yelled out, not wanting to part from Nagijan, who was currently sleeping on my bed.

"Of course not," Severus calmly answered. "I've spoken with Lord Slytherin about the situation and he said that you could move into his private quarters and Mr Zabini can have the Foreas' room for himself."

"I don't know," I answered honestly in a shy voice. Encouraging me with his body language to continue, I explained my thoughts to him. "I mean, I don't have anything against moving into his quarters in general. Our engagement is common knowledge now and I've already spent a week at his home. But with all the attention and the special treatment I already got, I fear that it will send the other students over the edge and make them complain about me and maybe even start to bully me because of it."

"Hmm," my godfather hummed in acknowledgement. "I already voiced similar fears to him. That's why I wanted to know your opinion about it before getting back to him," he added, concealing that his own concerns lay more in the direction of Tom being accused to be a paedophile because of I sleeping in his bed.

"It's a shame though since this would have been the easiest solution," Severus muttered more to himself than to me.

"Maybe we could just wait a while until everything has calmed down?" I suggested. "It's not like Draco and I have a problem with sharing a room," I added.

Severus took another gulp of his tea, obviously thinking about the proposition._ Harry's suggestion has its merits,_ he thought. _Maybe... He hasn't complained about it either... It's his own fault anyway...Yes, that could work... _

After a long sigh, he finally shared his idea with me. "How about this. For the next two years you and Draco will stay in the Foreas' room, while Mr Zabini will stay in the boys' dorm. And in your third year you'll move into Lord Slytherin's quarters and Mr Zabini will get the Foreas' room."

"Sounds good," I agreed. "By then the gossip should have calmed down," I said in good humour.

Severus mentally added to my sentence, _And by then you should be old enough to keep the paedophile accusations down. Thank Salazar that as soon as a Foreas is fertile, he's regarded as an adult, at least sexually. __Let's just hope that neither Harry nor Zabini will __become__ fertile before their third year. Though, I fear that Tom won't like that Harry and Draco will __be __shar__ing__ a room for the next two years. __I can only hope that Harry too wanting to stay with Draco __for a while longer__ will soften Tom's reaction. __He's so smitten with Harry that he tends to overlook some things as long as it will make Harry happy__._

"Good," he finally said out loud after his short mental monologue. "I'll inform the rest of your classmates about the arrangement before dinner," he said in dismissal.

"I can tell Draco now though?" I asked, eager to share the good news with him.

"Of course," he said. "And now go," he added with a shoving motion.

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"Our Lord isn't enough for you, Potter? You have to sleep with the Malfoy heir too?" Ronald Weasley attacked me just outside of the Great Hall as Draco and I were on our way to dinner.

Obviously the news of the unusual sleeping arrangement had already reached the other houses because many of them stopped outside the Great Hall to listen to the fight.

"It isn't my problem that Blaise is afraid of Nagijan," I countered, petting my snake who was back around my shoulders.

"You shouldn't have been allowed to bring it in the first place. But that's beside the point," Ron said. "Malfoy shouldn't have moved in with you. He could have stayed in the boys' dorm with everyone else," he said, neither I nor Draco liking that he spoke like my blond friend wasn't standing right next to us.

"That wouldn't be possible," a female voice said matter-of-factly. Turning around I saw that it was Hermione who had spoken up.

"And why not, Ms Know-it-all?" Ron mockingly asked.

"Because the dormitories are enchanted," she began her explanation. "There are always only as many beds as students which are supposed to sleep in each dorm. Not even the headmaster is able to add an extra bed to a dormitory according to _Hogwarts: A History_. So, as long as no one wants to sleep on the floor, someone has to switch his bed with Blaise," she explained.

"You're really a freak. Who in their right mind reads _Hogwarts: A History_?" Ron insulted her.

"Come on, Hermione. Don't listen to what he says," I told her as I steered her away from the red-head. It was obvious that Ron's words had hurt her, so I told her, "You know, Draco and I read _Hogwarts: A History, _too." _At least the first four chapters about the founders before we skipped to the last chapters,_ I mentally added.

Thankfully this had the hoped effect of cheering her up.

"Did you know about the beds?" Draco asked me after we sat down at the Slytherin table.

"No," I admitted. "Severus must have known about it though."

"Hmm," he agreed as he drank some pumpkin juice. "I'm glad that we postponed your relocation to Lord Slytherin's quarters," he whispered into my ear, not wanting to be overheard.

"Yeah, it's already bad enough as it is," I agreed, very aware about the whispers and stares which were as bad as during breakfast and lunch, if not worse. The only upside was that instead of them only staring at me, the other students were now looking at Draco and to some extent, at Blaise too.

**-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-Verbuar―Blinded-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-**

To my relief, the whispers and stares had decreased over the following days until two weeks after school was in session, they had completely vanished. To my annoyance, the attention I got increased again when it was time for the first Quidditch match between Gryffindor and Slytherin.

Everyone was interested in how the first-year, Harry Potter would fare. Understandably their high expectations did nothing to calm down my nerves; they made them even worse.

Ron's comment about my sure failure to catch the Snitch and therefore guaranteeing Gryffindor an easy win was expected. However, Draco was surprised when the Weasley twins approached me right after their brother to honestly wish me good luck for the game and promised to not target me too often with the Bludgers. I, on the other hand, wasn't terribly surprised by their well wishes.

On the first day of classes the twins had ambushed me when I'd walked alone to Severus' office while they were on their way back from Potions class. At first I thought that they wanted to revenge their younger brother, who had gotten a detention from McGonagall for how he treated his house mate Neville.

But to my relief, they just congratulated me of being the youngest Seeker in a century and thought that my catch of the Remembrall had been brilliant. They'd seen the whole episode from their Care of Magical Creatures class and thought that Ron was an ass and deserved the detention he got. Before they left, they even told me that they were sad that I wouldn't be playing for Gryffindor like my father.

But with the whole dormitory issue going on that day, I had totally forgotten to tell Draco about my short meeting with the twins.

"You don't have anything to worry about, Harry," Draco told me as we walked towards the changing rooms. "I mean have you seen Gryffindor's Seeker? His reflexes really aren't the best. Besides, with the Firebolt your father sent you, you'll also have the speed advantage," he motivated me, helping to calm my nerves somewhat.

"Though it's a real shame that no Chaser position was open this year," Draco added just before we had to part ways.

We were both fairly sure that we could have been able to get another special permission for Draco from Tom if he had made it onto the team. But Marcus, this year's captain and Chaser, had said that the trio with him, Adrian and **Sekhmet*** worked too good to be divided. But as Sekhmet would be graduating this year, Draco was free to try out for her position next year.

"Good luck," Draco told me before he made his way up to the Slytherin stands and I got ready for the game.

To my great relief and my house mates' joy, I won the game against Gryffindor for Slytherin without a problem. At least, if you overlooked that I'd nearly swallowed the Snitch. From then on, I stopped being nervous about the games, becoming actually eager to fight with the other Seeker for the Snitch.

**-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-Verbuar―Blinded-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-**

By the end of the year, I had gotten used to being the new star of the Slytherin Quidditch team, had gotten rather good at using the short cuts pointed out in the Marauder's Map to avoid Ronald Weasley, and the rest of Hogwarts' population seemed to have forgotten that Lord Slytherin was my fiancé.

So, to come back to Longfellow's quote about fame, I was happy that I was acknowledged by my peers because of my Quidditch skills and therefore something I was good at, instead of being famous for being Tom's fiancé, something which hadn't anything to do with me just being Harry.

Unbeknown to me, the fact that I had achieved either an Acceptable or an Exceeds Expectations in all my end of year exams except for Defence, where I achieved an Outstanding, was enough for Dumbledore to back off for now and just keep a close watch on me for the next years.

I fear that if I'd been competing for the title of 'top student' with Draco and Hermione, Dumbledore would have tried to come up with a plot to either test my skills or to get rid of me with an accident. But with I only being talented in DADA and Quidditch, the headmaster only saw it fit to have a nice, long chat with Professor Quirrel.

At the end of the talk, the Defence teacher decided to go back to travelling and exploring the world, leaving Dumbledore free to find another teacher who wouldn't nurture my aptitude for DADA. And who would be better suited for this task than Gilderoy Lockhart.

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**Philosopher's Stone:** In my story the wizarding equivalent of "got the jackpot" just like "Merlin" is used instead of "God".

**Sekhmet: **Egyptian Goddess of war, her name meaning "The Powerful one". I used is a pureblood girl's name.

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**New ****Poll, ****so go vote****:** I'm starting a new poll. In it I want to know if you would like for Dumbledore to have Harry compete in the Triwizard Tournament. While I won't promise that I'll include it if the majority votes for it, it will at least increase the chances of it being added to the plot.


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